Life at Hogwarts (Meaning Mine of course)
by BellatrixRemairaBlack
Summary: Well, this is my original idea of falling asleep upon a book and entering it. I was drifted into Hogwarts, where I found that my story is that I am Voldemort's Daughter. Well, I'm Juliunna Riddle, so I'm techniqually Tom Riddle's Daughter. Whatever. So anyway, I'm friends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, I'm dating Draco, and I'm techniqually being raised by the Weasley's. So, yeah.
1. Chapter 1

**Well guys, its my time of the month again. If you haven't already noticed yet, my story: **_**Beatrice and I (But mostly me)**_**, is an up and running hit. Check it out if you haven't already. Now I'm at Hogwarts. There is Hermione, Harry, Ron, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, Blaise, and Severus Snape! I can't wait to unravel my story with them by my side and fighting for my needs.**

Chapter 1:

_**(A/N: I'll just pretend that I haven't read and seen all Harry Potter books and movies.)**_

**Normal Pov**

"Madaija Maldonado!" I snapped angrily. She was ignoring me fluently, refusing to sit next to me or acknowledge my existence. And its all because of what happened during first period.

…

_I walked inside the seventh grade communications classroom, holding two pads in my hand. "Okay Madaija here are your pads." I said nonchalantly, and then stopped at her desk, holding out the two pads in my hand to her. The whole class burst into heavy laughter._

_ …_

_ "What?" I asked, wondering what was so funny. "Juliunna!" Madaija snapped, her cheeks reddening. "What? What's up?" I asked, and she ripped the pads out of my hands and pushed them into her pocket._

_ "You know what! Get out!" She snapped in a hissing whisper, and there was loud laughter as everyone started talking. I took a deep breath as I tried to think._

_ "Wait a minute, oh!" I said, my mouth popping open. "You don't have to be embarresed about a Menstrual period. It's a monthly and very usual process that your body makes-!"_

_ "Juliunna"! Madaija screamed. Mrs. Bryant looked up at us._

_ "Its perfectly natural, and it isn't something to be embarrassed about in the slightest!" I snarled, and then skipped over to the door._

_ "By the way, space those out okay? I don't like going to the nurse to ask her for things you need. If your having a very thick cycle, you should try layering the pad with toilet paper-!"_

_ "Juliunna!" Madaija screamed furiously, her face as red as the skin of an apple. I ran out to the chorus of the whole class made up entirely of boys laughing profusely._

_ …_

I mean seriously, what did I do wrong? "Jules, just give it up. She ain't worth nothing." Taylor whispered loudly, and Madaija overheard. No. I don't talk bad about Taylor when Madajia talks her trash, and I won't talk bad about Madaija when Taylor talks her own trash. So I stare straight ahead at the computer screen and stay silent.

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here. Juliunna don't touch my stuff!" Madaija yelled at me. She had her book bag sitting on top of netbook, and I just wanted to lightly put it on the floor so that I can access my files. "Sorry." I said, and quickly put it on the floor where I should be. Madaija rushed over, grabbed her bag, and slammed it back on the table. I had moved my laptop away just in time.

"Jeez Juliunna. I hate it when you touch my stuff! Don't touch it without asking! Stop acting stupid!" Madaija snapped, and I winced. She always acted like this when she was mad at me. I fumbled for my headphones. If I can't hear her embarrassing me in front of the class, its like she never even started it.

"First off Madajia, Jules didn't do anything to you, so shut up!" Taylor snapped. Nasir stood up and looked to her. "Yeah, stop bugging out with you and your white trash."

"She touched my stuff. And frankly its none of your business so back off Taylor!" Madaija snapped, and my teacher started snapping at her.

"Okay Madaija, if you don't stop yelling in my class I'm going to write you up." He said. And Madaija scowled. "What am I doing? Nothing that's what!" Madaija snapped, and I finally got the headphones on my head. I hurriedly opened up my music library, and pressed play.

"Shut up!" Taylor snapped loudly back at Madaija. Apparently there was now a loud argument going on in there. I frowned, totally sad now.

I boringly gazed at my screen, wishing that the internet would work. Yesterday my internet started randomly flickering on and off. Right now, its currently to the off position.

"Don't listen to her Jules… Jules!" Taylor snapped, and then grabbed the headphones off of my head.

"Yes Taylor queen of all Taylors? What is it?" I asked, and she sighed aloud. "Here." She reached into her book bag and pulled out a large book. "What's this-! Oh my!" I gasped, seeing the cover. _Harry Potter and the Order of Phenoix_. Wow.

"Taylor!" I squealed, and then reached forward and gripped her tight in a big hug. She froze. "Taylor I know you don't like hugs but I've been waiting since like, forever for this book! The library couldn't find it!" I squealed. And Taylor reached forward and gave me a warm but awkward pat on the back. "Yeah, your welcome. My sister finished the book, and I heard you talking to Madaija about it a few days ago, and Chelsea finally gave me the book." Taylor said, and I let go of her with a squeal.

"Thank you Taylor. I'm going to put this book to good use!" I squealed, and then lifted the book down low. I set it down on the table and then laid my head down on the cover. Taylor stared at me.

. **…**

** …**

** …**

"Jules… Are you pulling a Danny?" Danny is the name of the student across the room, looking up to blankly stare at us. No one likes him in this class. Pulling a Danny means basically being a retard. But I'm not mean enough to tell him that he's annoying. So I pretend to laugh at his 'funny' jokes, and be as nice as I can when time calls.

"No. Just go back to your table Taylor. I know what I'm doing." I said, not wanting to explain the true fact that I am able to enter a fictional world during my unconscious state and enter a subconscious state. Basically I play along with the story. Its pretty interesting. But this isn't an ongoing and common thing. How can I explain?

When I lay my head on a book right before sleeping, not just any book, a book of great sentimental value and back breaking longingness, I fall into a deep and only wakeable sleep when someone in reality wakes me up. And I'm pretty sure that its not Lucid dreaming, the process of knowing when your sleeping. Its different, I just know it.

So with those thoughts, I start to drift off slowly, and slowly. And slowly into a nice, deep sleep.

** …**

I'm here. I wake up on the ground, dressed in a bright black outfit. A pair of black muggle jeans, tight as always. There is a solid gold band around my wrist, glinting in the pale but bright yellow radiating sunlight. On top of my jeans I'm wearing a long, black and white, skull plated shirt dress. My hairstyle is different then the one I went in with. Instead of the long black ponytail hairstyle, I'm wearing my hair down. When I softly reach up to touch it, I find that I'm wearing a thick hair band, holding my long curly hair behind my ears.

Weird, but oddly enough it always works out for me well in the end.

I look up at the castle, shining in all its obsessive glory against the palid light of morning. I'm not going to stand up yet. Mainly because I see a group of people in front of the Black Lake turning around towards me. I must have made some kind of noise when I entered this dream like reality state, for everyone started to look at me. Okay, I laid back down against the grass and shut my eyes.

Pretend your in a coma. Pretend your in a coma. Pretend you got knocked out while you were sitting in a sofa. Heh, oh why I'm I so giddy today? Oh right. Because its Hogwarts I'm going to be going to! Yay

I count to ten inside my head and when I opened my eyes, there was a huge crowd of people around me. "Hello." I said wearily, knowing that it could be a dangerous thing to not fit in. In the Divergent World, I had to worry about the Faction Leaders and Jeanine and her people finding out that I don't' belong there. They could execute me and study me for ages! In the Hunger Games, I suppose that I will have to worry about President Snow and the Capital finding out. Here… I don't even have to think twice about it. Lord Voldemort could have a thing to say or do if he found out about me. Like for instance, using his magic to try to rule my reality along with this Wizarding world.

Oh my. That is a bad thing, isn't it?!

"Hello? Miss, are you okay? You just fell from the sky." The girl in front of me said, pointing up towards the sky.

"Um, yeah. I missed the Hogwarts train." I said. The boy right next to her raised an eyebrow.

"But… Its July. School year ends in two weeks."

"Yeah, do you know how hard it is to arrange a portkey with the Ministry, at this age and time?" I said with an eyeroll. I quickly stood up and brushed myself off.

"Ahem. Why are your clouthes ripped? Did you get into a scuffle or something?" A blonde boy asked me, and I looked down. There was a red hand print on my chest, as if someone had slapped it. My pants were indeed scratched up. And now that I thought about it, there was a slight stinging sensation on my leg, as if I had jumped off a small building at full power right onto one ankle. Well, my sudden change of appearance always works out for me. It must be part of the story.

"Apparently. Ah!" I said, and faked a fall. Dozens of hands braced my fall, including the blonde boy. I looked up, and bit my lip to go into full fan girling mode. I could see so many familiar faces. Heh, since its my world, all the characters look as I see them.

"I know you! Well, many of you!" I said, and then zoomed back up to full height. "Draco Malfoy!" I started, pointing to him. He shrugged lightly. "Of course she knows me. I'm very well known throughout the country."

"No you aren't." Ron said, rolling his eyes. "Shut up Weasel." Draco spit. I shut my mouth immediently. This is what I can't do. I'm not supposed to show acknowledgement that I know about them until they tell me themselves that!

"Never mind. I have a concusion. I don't remember anything." I said, not knowing anything. And then started walking forward. Immediently the crowd started following me. "What?" I snapped at them, stopping in my tracks.

"Who'd you fight-!"

"Where are you going?" Hermione snapped rather smartly. I turned to look at her for the first time. If there is something I don't like in a person, its intelligence. And I know from the books that she has it. It looks like I'm going to have to better myself so I can destroy her emotionally rather then physically. I used to like her. But its been a while and I can't help but think that she's too loose, bitchy, and high on herself.

"Inside. I suppose that I'll have to talk to the Headmaster." I said with a roll of my eyes. And then started walking forward. When I reached the door, I looked behind me to see Ron. Amazing how the characters look exactly like their actors portrayed them as.

"Hello Ron." I said, and then started walking again. The crowd around me started to deteriorate slowly. "What? But How do you know my name?" He asked, and soon the curious crowd of children turned from a dozen to three. Ron, Hermione, and Harry. His scar…

I stopped in my tracks and turned to Harry. Harry didn't move, but he did glance upwards at his forehead, as if he knew that was what I was staring at.

"Sing us a song! And we'll sing it back to you. We can sing our own, but what would it be without you-! Oh!" I sang in an effort not to cause a scene with a fan girl incident. "This time, I will be listening. Sing us a song, and we'll sing it back to you." I sang, starting to skip on my way down the hall. Harry sighed greatfully, and Hermione walked forward to keep in step with me.

"This heart, it beats, beats for only you. My heart, my heart is, yours. My heart is yours. My heart is, yours!" Hermione sang loudly, and the two of us laughed.

"You like Paramore too?" We both asked at the same time, and I couldn't help but laugh again. Ron and Harry looked in between us with an amused smirk.

"Yes. It's the only band I'll listen too. But anyway, where are you really from?" Hermione asked. And I shrugged. "Everywhere. I move around a lot." I said with a smile, and when I rounded the corner, I sprinted into a run up the stairs. Where's Dumbledore's office? Where is it? The fourth floor? Well it was in the game boy game, but I find that highly unlikely it is implied here.

"Wait a minute! You don't know where Dumbledore's office is!" Hermione called when she rounded the corner. She must have stopped to gawk at the boys because I was halfway to the top step.

"Your right, I don't… So lets go people. Move it!" I yelled. Harry and Ron stormed forward at my shout, but Hermione still went at normal speed.

"Okay. Your going to want to take a left at this corner." Harry breathed. I nodded. Wow, judging by the way he was hunching over and gasping, the dude was really out of shape. You can still be skinny and out of shape. My homeroom friend Frank T. is there to prove it. Ron looked out with me with squinting eyes, as if he was trying to judge me with his mind.

"Question. You guys don't have gym class, do you?" I asked. Hermione, when she caught up, answered my question. "No. Why?" She asked. And for that, I smiled. "No reason. But to be specific, I hate Gym." I said with a shrug. Hermione nodded in thought.

"If there was ever a school that needed Gym class, it was this one. I mean seriously, for all but two to three months you live here in Hogwarts. But I'm surprised with all that food you witches and wizards eating every night, you guys haven't been packing a lot of pounds. Harry's still got the body he had when he was at the Dursleys!" I laughed. Harry raised an eyebrow at me.

"Hey, how'd you know I lived with the Dursleys-!"

"What is supposed to be, a huge secret Potter?" I asked. And then I set off again down the hall. There was a lot of talking and speculation about where I came from, on our way to Dumbledore's office of course.

"Wait a minute, where did you live before you came here?" Ron asked me, and I shrugged. "New Jersey up in America." I said nicely. He nodded in thought.

"Is it nice up there? I heard Jersey is a pretty messed up place." Hermione said, and I shook my head no. "Nah guys. Its just a pretty biased and normal place. Nobody moves _to _Jersey, they move out. Its filled with dozens of small towns and big ones. It's a pretty basic place of course. You've got a lot ghetto places. A lot of country folk. But I like to think of it as home." I said. And Harry hummed.

"I call Hogwart's home."

"That's because your Dursley home is a place of tragic and so you've built up a world of magic in your head. Your easily impressed Harry. Don't forget that." I smiled. Harry frowned but didn't say anything.

"Anyway, here's Dumbledore's office. We'll wait out here for you. I suppose you'll need help finding your way around the castle." Hermione said with a smile, and that wiped the smile off of my face. Hermione frowned.

"Was it something I said?"

"Yes." I said, and then opened the door to go inside. I turned around to look at her. "Remember this moment." When it was shut behind me, I glared at the empty room in front of me. I don't need anyone. I just want guidance around the school so that I don't get lost. Need is a strong word Granger. Remember this moment indeed.

I strode forward briskly. The old coot has to be around here somewhere. Judging by Dumbedore's charecteristics and actions in the books and movies, he's a manipulate git, git is a common word for 'jerk' in the Harry Potter Wizarding world. Yeah. Dumbledore acts as if he has the wizarding world's safety at heart, and he's the ultimate everything. I hate how all the Gryffindors, minus the Slytherins and a few select people in the world look up to him and cling to his 'greatness', as if he was a security blanket.

"Well hello." I heard, and then looked up to see him suddenly standing on the balcony in the room. Classy. Sarcasm, hinting at it.

"Dumbledore." I said blankely, and then strode forward. His desk sat in the middle of the large room. I sat down in his big chair, the one that should be reserved for him. Let me explain. I Juliunna, bow to no man. I show him no less respect that an insect. The great ones make me antsy.

"And you are, my dear?" He croaked in his olden like voice, and then started to descend slowly down the stairs.

"The names Juliunna. I request that, as a mere fiftheen year old (I'm fourteen but he doesn't need to know that), I attend Hogwarts for the last two weeks and then beyond." I said, and when Dumbledore reached my footing, he sat down in the chair across from the desk. The same one Harry sat in when he was accused of attacking Justin and had to be sent to Dumble's office.

"Request accepted Miss Juliunna." Dumbledore said with a smile, and I scowled.

"Really? Really?" I said with a scowl, and then shook my head with a disappointed look. Dumbledore sincerely smiled. "What is it Miss Juliunna?"

"Okay, a complete stranger turns up on the lawn of Hogwarts, demanding access to your school. Dude, you know the Dark Lord is back and your just going to let me, a potential death eater, not saying I am but still, your just going to let me come in without any investigation?" I asked with a roll of my brown eyes.

"That's right Miss Juliunna." Dumbledore smiled. I clenched my fingers tightly, digging them into the arms of my chair.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. Miss Juliunna, I assure you that I am perfectly capable of seeing the best and worst of people. I haven't seen your best yet, seeing as if we only met five minutes ago, but I can see your worst." He said wisely and gravely. I don't like that twinkling, knowing look in his eyes. He does not know me in the slightest!

"Oh really, and what's my worst?" I snapped, and he smiled. "Your worst is your intense ability to mistrust and your rudeness. You expect me to create a full wide search on you, because that is what you would do. And I suppose that you think that what you know is best."

"Yes. That is exactly right!' I snapped suddenly, and he smiled wider. I frowned intensely. "I mean no. Yes, it is what I'd do. You believe that the Dark Lord is back, correct?" I asked softly, and Dumbledore nodded. "Yes Miss."

"You do realize that me suddenly appearing two weeks before the end of the school year is a curious and somewhat suspicious thing. Right?" I asked. He nodded. "Of course Miss."

"And so you realize that the boy, Harry Potter, is in danger of on coming Death Eaters? Right?" I asked, and Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, if you are worrying that you are a Death Eater Miss Juliunna, I assure you that there are priorities and safety constraints in place." He said nicely. I nodded.

"Yeah."

I don't think that I like that man too much anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

**Normal Pov**

"Wait a minute, wait." I said, hurrying to catch up with the crowd of students. I was never one to be physical of course. I'm more of a reader, of course.

"Wait up? Come on, you need to run faster if your going to make it to Potions." Draco said, sighing. I frowned.

"I don't see why I need to go to class anyway. In two weeks term will be over. I don't even have a wand anyway." I said.

"No wand?" Draco said, turning around. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me. "Your fifteen, of course you have a wand."

"I lost it." I snapped. He shrugged. "Whatever."

"So, fifth year, the big 0-5, such possibilities and such grace." I said with a shake of my head, sarcastically of course.

"How are you going to do magic, though? Without a wand of course?" Draco asked me, some what nicely.

"Well… When it turns summer break, I guess that I'm going to get to Diagon Alley, somehow, find a place to live, somehow, buy myself a wand, somehow, and then live myself a life." I said with a half smile.

"No place to live? Why don't you just come home with me?" Draco asked me, shrugging. I gasped. "What?"

"You heard me. If I ask my mother, she would let you stay without a second doubt. You're a pretty girl. We have dozens of bedrooms in the house. Thousands of square feet of property. And we even have our own private lake. Its only the three of us, of course. We have plenty of room in the castle." Draco shrugged. I smiled. I want to live in the Malfoy's castle.

"Okay. I accept. I just hope your parents say yes. I don't think I can stay the whole summer, alone, with that insufferable oaf!" I said, and Draco snickered.

"You don't like him either? Wait, your talking about Dumbledore?" Draco asked.

"Yes. I hate the way everyone clings on to his wisdom like he's a security blanket. You know what I mean Dray?" I asked as we entered the Potions room. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. And I agree. The way they look up to him, and believe that he's the best person in the world, as if he's some kind of gift from god, its sickening. But not as much as Harry Potter. Well, by the way, we take care of our own in Slytherin. Your one of us now." Draco nodded at me. "Thanks Dray." I cooed to annoy him, and then ruffled his blonde hair. Then the both of us sat down at the potions desk in front of the Golden Trio.

"Hello, Juliunna." Hermione said, and I turned around to face her.

"Hello Hermione, Harry, Ron-!" I started, but Draco grabbed my shoulder and jetted me around to face the front of the class. "Hey!"

"Don't talk to them. Their weirdos." Draco whispered, and Ron hissed. "We're not weirdo's. But Draco is the ultimate one. He's a stupid jerk who doesn't have a life-!"

"I least I can afford things Weasley. Can you afford things?" Draco said, and I bit back my chuckle. But Draco smirked at the smiling look on my face.

"Shut up Malfoy." Both him and Harry said. Harry spoke to me.

"Anything new Jules?" Harry asked, and I nodded. "Well-!"

"She's coming home with me this summer." Draco said, turning around to smile at them.

"What? But why?" Hermione asked.

"I have no choice. I don't have anywhere to go." I said with a shrug.

"Yes she does. She's just being modest. The both of us are having a lavish summer at my Manor, you know Jules, we might just go to Paris during the summer if you ask. But then again, if you want to live with Weasley, you might just get to see his chicken coop." Draco said, and I snorted.

"Good one Dray." I whispered. "Thanks." He said.

"At least at the Weasley's house you have love and honor. The Malfoy's house are a symbol of their disgrace to the Wizarding world-!"

"Well if lavish and rich goods and the respect of millions of people are a symbol of disgrace, I think Draco would enjoy being a disgrace to the Wizarding World." I said with a broad smirk on my face, folding my hands on my desk. Draco laughed.

"But-!"

I interrupted Ron with a laugh. "Can you afford happiness Wealey? I know Draco can." I said, and both Draco and I burst into laughter.

"Good one." Draco laughed happily. "Hey, the second we both go home, I'll buy you your own wand." Draco smiled widely.

"Thank you." I said. I can't wait to learn magic and potions and become the best witch in the school! I smiled to myself happily. Draco laughed at the memory of my joke. "Can you afford happiness? Classic! Why didn't I think of that-!"

"Juliunna that was very rude. Please apologize to Ronald-!"

"She doesn't have to do anything you tell her to do, dirty blood." Draco sneered.

"Hey!" She snapped.

"Don't talk to her like-!"

"Sorry Ron." I said, interrupting Harry. "Its okay. You know, if your really lonely, you don't have to stay with Malfoy-!"

"I'm not lonely-!"

"She's not lonely." Both Draco and I said at the same time. The both of us nodded to each other nicely.

"Hey, if you really don't have a home to go to, you could go with any of the three of us." Hermione said nicely, and Harry nodded. "Yeah, except for me, though. I live with muggles and they don't like me. And they surely don't have any room for you. But that's because you'd be one of my friends. And they don't even like me living there during the summer."

"So Dumbledore still hasn't taken you away from those abusive bastards, aka, the Dursleys?" I asked him with a sour smile. Harry's eyes widened as he frowned.

"What… But how do you know that I live with the Dursleys?"

"Doesn't it seem a little weird to you that Dumbledore knew that you would be abused and neglected living with the foulest muggles our their kind? Let's say it was for protection. Wouldn't you be any safer with any old wizarding family, that would have been more then glad to take you in. But Dumbledore left you with the Dursleys. What do you have now? Selflessness and kindness Harry? Yes. Of course sweetheart. You've lived a long, tough life alone, living under that cupboard. No one decided to move in and let you be watched by a wizard? Maybe Dumbledore couldn't do it. And his excuse is that it was better for you to grow up away from the shadows of fame? Think about that Potter." I said with a shrug. Hermione frowned as the Golden Trio thought. Draco smirked and even chuckled a little.

"Well maybe… Dumbledore knew what he was doing, and I bet it was for a reason. I mean, its Dumbledore we're talking about here." Hermione said. I frowned. "Dray, do you go through this every day?" I asked.

"Yep. I've tried to change their way of idiot thinking, but they just won't listen. _Its Dumbledore we're talking about._"

"Ha!" I laughed joyously. Draco took out a notebook when the classroom door slammed behind us, and Professor Snape came storming in. "Here, play with this if you get bored. We're continuing a project we started yesterday. You won't be able to do much." Draco explained to me, and he also fished out ink and a quill. Err… How do I use this stuff?

"Everyone go over to the closet and resume your projects. Presentations are in one hour and thirty minutes, at the end of class." Professor Snape drawled, and I smiled. He was a lovable character of the Potter series in my book. By the way, I still haven't read Harry Potter and the Order of Phenoix yet. I'm gonna need to do that when I get home.

Everyone got up and moved over to the class, and I folded my hands over the smoothly wooden desk. Look at the stuff around here. Its described as creepy and animalistic, chilling and a sullen place to be. But the dark room, with its glowing jars and décor is worthy of my attention and awe.

"Excuse me?" Professor Snape hit his hands in front of me on the table. Apparently he was angry to the fact that I hadn't moved.

"Yes, sir?" I asked with a smile. He glared at my openness and happiness.

"Why aren't you going to the closet?"

"But… I don't have a project." I said, frowning a little.

"Well then you better start making one." Professor Snape started, and then moved away in a swift drawl. Okay, I smirked. Juliunna Bennett takes two day projects, and turns them into one day projects easily. I know that, because its easy for me.

"Alright," I started, and then got up. I quickly walked in step with Professor Snape, who scowled at me. "What?"

"What is the project?" I asked, and he pointed to the board. "Alright, I see it now. One little problem though." I said, and Professor Snape turned to be with a sullen frown. "What is it?"

"I can't read thick cursive." I said. "Nor can I write it." I said honestly. I'm smart, and I am perfectly capable of doing many things. But reading and writing thick cursive, I can't even write thin cursive, these are things that I just can't do to this day.

"Well, _Mrs. Longbottom_, but you have to learn cursive if you want to pass Hogwarts." He sneered, smiling a little. I rolled my eyes.

"I know that-!... Did you just call me Mrs. Longbottom?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Yes. Your acting like it."

"What?" I snapped at him. He's being the world's biggest jerk right now. I am Juliunna, I am smart. I am terrific. And he can't talk to me like that!

"That's not funny in the slightest, _Sniviless_." I snapped, remembering what I had read on the internet. He frowned at me, and his eyes widened.

"How did you-! What house are you in?"

"Slytherin."

"Then I won't take points off. You have detention tonight."

"Eh! What?"

"Eight o'clock. Don't be late." He snarled at me. He was angry now, so I thought it best to go back to my table. Draco was already there, holding a smoking goblet as he put it on the table.

"Are there by any chance partners in this project, Malfoy?" I asked, and he nodded. "Yes. I did mine alone, but you can always work with me." He shrugged. I smiled.

"Thank you Dray. What potion are we working on, anyway?" I asked him, and he started to grab something next to his cauldron that looked like thin hairike needles.

"Well, we're working on a herbology potion. The rest of the class is doing anything they want, I really don't care anyway. So, if done correctly, this is going to make the plants grown instantly at touch. And while this isn't a really simple potion, its very easy for me to make. It'll be an easy A. Could you go get me some unicorn hair from the closet?" Draco asked, and I nodded. "Sure dude." I walked over to the closet and started looking around.

"Um… Which one is the unicorn hair?" I said in a low whisper so that no one could hear me. All the boxes, a hundred of them to an estimate, weren't specifically labeled. There must have been some kind of key code, because all of the boxes were numbered. Hash tag 1#, Hash tag 245#. Hmm, yes, where is the key code anyway?

There was a small but sharp tap on my shoulder. I turned around and was face to face with a boy. He held out a paper to me, and I smiled. Widely. "Thank you." I said excitedly, and then looked on the paper. As I started counting, the boy started talking.

"Yeah, everyone gets one key code at the end of the year and if you lose it, you have to guess which boxes are the one you want. My name's Tyler-!"

I turned around fast. No. No. Not him.

I got a good look at who it was and saw Tyler's smirking face. What? But how did it change-!

"You better back up." I snapped. How hadn't I noticed that it was him the first time? It's very weird.

He was tall, six foot 4. He towered over me with bulging muscles, pale skin, and cerulean and child like blue eyes.

"Oh come on, just wait a second. Listen-!" I turned around to leave and he gripped my wrist tight. "Ouch. Well isn't this little scene familiar." I said with a sneer. He frowned and let go. "Sorry. Force of habit." He said. "So, anyway, do you want to borrow my paper?" Tyler whisperd. His wet looking black hair shined. I frowned.

"Yes. Of course. But just back up, as I said before." I said with a huff. He held up both of his large arms and backed up from me, standing at the door of the closet. I looked to the paper.

"Alright, here we go." I said, and then reached out for hash tag 14#. "Unicorn hair. Take your paper back Tyler." I snapped. I grabbed the box and then threw the paper at Tyler. It floated towards his feet and he scowled as I strode pass him. When I reached Draco's side I slammed the box down right next to Cauldron.

"Okay, here's your unicorn hair." I said, and then sat down next to him, crossing my arms as I scowled. "What's the matter with you?" Draco asked me, and I hissed softly.

"Let's be quiet for a while, I'll tell you later." I whispered, ignoring the whispers of the golden trio behind me.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

**Normal Pov**

"Wait a minute, you can what?" I asked them. I was sitting in a crowd of Draco's cronies, at the base of Draco's feet. I was leaning by back against his knees as he brushed my hair, rather roughly and jetting out rude comments every few seconds.

"Yes, I can brush and braid hair. Normal I'd use magic, but I'm afraid that with all the knots in your hair, I'd accidentally rip your scalp out. Man this is tough. When's the last time you brushed your hair-!"

"Hey! If you didn't want to brush it why'd you insist on it?"

"I couldn't stand watching you put it up in a hair tie on the sole excuse of not having to take care of your hair. Besides, Hogsmead visits are tomorrow and we're meeting my parents. You're not going to embarrass me after I stuck up for you and told them you were a young, sophisticated lady-!"

I groaned deeply. "Oh man, who cares what I look like?" I snapped at him.

"My parents aren't going to want you in their house if you look like riffraff!"

"Riffraff!" I repeated with a smile. Draco snorted and ripped the brush through a particularly tough spot, making me snap my head backwards. I leaned forward after Crabbe and Goyle laughed.

"Shut it." Both Draco and I said. "What are you going to wear?" Draco asked me, and I sighed. Its been a full week of reality time, and five days of dream time. I've just been really busy for the pass two days, but I managed to find time to visit this world. Three days ago I had detention with Professor Snape, and he was as sullen and suspicious person as I've ever encountered a sullen and suspicious person ever before! For some reason… He seems to think my story of arranging a port key two weeks before school is over is bonkers. Its funny, I came here with nothing, but clothes keep appearing on my Slytherin bed. Always my size and suspiciously to my liking.

Every 'morning' when I enter this world, I appear laying awake on my Slytherin bed. At my feet there are always a change of clothes sitting there for me. Weird, but it helps the plot, I guess.

"Whatever I have." I told Draco, and he broke through the thick knots and started brushing the smooth hair follicles.

"I want you to wear something fancy. Classic, but not too loose. Maybe a gown, but not short and tight. Try long and frilly, but not too much frilly-!"

"Ew. Why not jeans and a jacket-!"

"You mean those disgraceful to the wizarding world mudblood worthy clothes?" Draco smirked at me. I sighed.

"Yeah, those."

"No. Your not wearing them. From what I've seen, you didn't come with any luggage. Is that right?" Draco asked me, and then softly ran his fingers through my hair. It didn't hurt, surprisingly. I nodded at him with a bright smile.

"Hey, my hair isn't all knotted anymore-!"

"Yeah. And it only took forty minutes. Now come on, on your back. I'll paint your nails-!"

"What? Why are you so used to this stuff? How do you even know how to do this?!" I asked him.

"Huh? Oh. Pansy and I have known each other for years. I do this stuff for her all the time. Sure, she's annoying, but our parents want us to be nice with each other because we're both rich purebloods and our families are friends." Draco said, and I got on my back with a sigh.

"You know what Dray, I wouldn't be nice to her because my parents wanted to. I hate the act of conformity and being a conformist. So I decided to no longer be one. I wouldn't hang out with her, I would coolly tell my parents that I'm not going to do something I don't want to do." I said, and Draco smirked at me widely.

"Really, and they would be okay with that?"

"No, and that's what makes it exciting." I whispered to him. "To bad you don't have too much of a backbone Dray. There are a lot of things in your life you could use some rebelling at. Especially _knowing how to paint toenails and enjoy them_-!'

He bent my leg back towards my head hard, I squealed. "Ouch!"

"Ha-ha!" Draco chuckled, and then put my foot back onto his lap. Crabbe and Goyle watched Draco and I with amused faces.

"Um… What is conformity?" Crabbe asked.

"Conformity is the act of doing something because it is suspected of you. The belief that your supposed to be doing something because everyone else is doing. For example, society has put many beliefs that all children are misbehaving are evil little beasts that are good for nothing. I, even as a child, had to grow up fast to adjust to my surroundings and new responsibilities. I'm not excited and easily allured to the many things that modern day children are attracted to. I enjoy knowledge better then sports and fun and or video games. Knowledge is power boys. And you'll never get anywhere in life without it. I'm going to let knowledge wash over me, I'll empower it.

Since I was twelve years old and learned the power of knowledge, I decided that when I was older, if given the chance, I was going to take over the world. I would start small, then grow bigger as I converted or killed the rest of the world. I want an army. I want to be feared, feared by the whole world. I want the name _Juliunna_ to be whispered in the private shadows of misery. The name to be condemned and send shivers up anyone who hears and or says it. I want to rule the world with the one person beside me who understands me.

Which brings me on to the way of my wanted death. If there is ever a way I wanted to die, I wanted to die sensually and painfully. I'm talking being intimately choked to death, or preferably having a small blade edged around my skin, carving out each and every simple and dire consequence that I would deserve, after all of the harsh and deadly things I have caused." I finished, my eyes wide as I stared up at the ceiling longingly.

I looked up and Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were staring at me. Their eyes wide and their mouths wide open. "Oh… Wow." Draco said awkwardly, but then he turned to look at the wall in deep thought.

"Draco can I run upstairs, I want to grab a book." I said nicely. Draco nodded.

"Yeah, yes of course." He said blankly. Hmm… Why does he look scarred for life? I asked myself, but with a shrug walked onwards. When I reached the stairs, my attention was immediately averted to the fact that Crabbe and Goyle were right behind me.

"Err… Whacha doing?" I smiled nicely, starting to slowly back up the stairs.

"Well, your Malfoy's girl-!"

"And by honor, we're supposed to protect you-!"

"Wait. What do you mean by Malfoy's girl?" I said, turning around to jog up the stairs. Crabbe and Goyle ran faster up the stairs to catch up with me.

"You guys are dating of course-!'

"No. We are not." I said to Goyle. With a smile I rounded the corner and smashed into a wall of muscle. I inhaled a thick cloud of cologne and immediately backpedaled into Crabbe and Goyle. "Well, what is it? What are they talking about?" Tyler said with a sudden glare on his face. He was always the violent when jealous type.

"Their not talking about anything." I said immediately, and Tyler stepped forward. Crabbe and Goyle parted and I squeezed in between them. Then they locked together, smirking and flexing their burly gorilla arms at Tyler. Tyler glared heatedly at me and Crabbe and Goyle.

"You have a boyfriend?" He said, raising his eyebrows. I frowned.

"No, no I don't." I said, and angled my body towards the Slytherin stairs. I was ready to run for my life. I know I have nothing to hide from Tyler, after all, I'm telling the truth. But if he wants to believe that I'm lying, he'll think I'm lying. And I don't want him to get violent. We were both in the same Divergent and Hunger Games sleep droid. He broke my arm because he thought that Marvel and I had a fling going on. And he broke it in reality because I wouldn't listen to him in the park. And then he created this whole feud between my friends and his because he hurt me. He also broke my nose and stomped on me in the divergent world because when he told me he loved me, I told him it wasn't love and I could never love anyone who would hurt me that way. Now, well I don't know what he'd do this time.

"Are you lying-!"

"No I'm not! **Ahhh**!" I ran to the stairs and took them two at a time. I didn't turn around to watch the show, but I heard a loud and painful struggle. Whether more grunts came from Crabbe and Goyle then Tyler, I have no idea. But then I heard a loud slam as I rounded the corner and ran into the Slytherin common room.

"Yep, definitely not Tyler who's having trouble." I whispered fearfully. I walked straight to Draco's side, who was chuckling in thought at the wall. "Oh hey, your back. Where'd Crabs and Goyle go?" He asked me, and I shrugged. "They got into a tussle with someone upstairs, so I went back down here." I shrugged nonchalantly, with a wide smile. Draco smiled at me, but then jetted his hands towards the letter in his hands.

"What's that?" I asked him.

"Permission for Hogsmead. For you." Draco said, and then handed it to me.

"Wait, but don't my parents and or guardian have to sign the form to go into Hogsmead?" I asked him curiously. Wow, I must be special if their going to make an exception for me instead of Harry Potter during his third year. Weirdly cool.

"Yeah, I had Professor Snape pull some strings… Your welcome." Draco added. "Oh, yeah. Thank you Draco." I said, and then turned on my back with a sigh.

"Man, life changes quickly." I commented. Draco turned to look at me. "Yeah… It does." He said, and I looked up at the ceiling, my eyes starting to droop. "One minute your sitting in class, and the next you discover you have fantastic powers." I whispered. Draco turned to me, his eyes wide.

"Your not going to sit her and tell me you're a mudblood, are you?" Draco said, narrowing his eyes at me. I shook my head no.

"Nah Dray, of course not. I was talking about the power of hallucinations." I smirked. "The power of relaxation. When your life is tragic, and you build up a world of magic so powerful you find yourself slipping off to it very often. Come think with me Draco." I said serenely, crossing my ankles. Draco huffed.

"Yeah, I don't like sitting on the floor." He snapped at me. I smirked. "Are you saying that you are timid?" I asked him, a smirk on my face. Stars seemed to burst within my eyesight, and Draco scoffed.

"I am not afraid." He snapped defensively, and then threw himself onto the floor beside me. He laid on his back as he stared up at the ceiling. I turned to look at him, and hummed sadly. "You look disappointed-!"

"Of course I do. What is it that you enjoy about sitting on this dirty floor? Its damp and dark, and while the ceiling is 'pretty', it is still adequate." Draco grumbled to his self. I smirked.

"You just love to be negative, don't you Dray? You see, this is nice. Just lying here and humming and thinking to myself. Its soothing and nice. Just take a deep breath, there you go, and relax your spine." I whispered serenely to him. Draco stared at me. He took a deep, irritating breath, and then arched his spine, trying to get the good feeling.

"Ah… Yes, I get it now!" Draco said as he straightened out his back on the floor. He turned to me with a giant smile on his face, his pale face flushing brightly. "Really?" I said with a smile.

"Yeah. Your completely insane!" He said, and I frowned. "Hey!"

"Just kidding, I'm just not cut out for your simple lifestyle. But here," He said. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to my cheek. I giggled.

"Get ready for tomorrow." He smiled, and with a laugh sauntered off to his dorm. I smiled at his retreating back.

"Cute. Cute Malfoy." I said to him, a smile fresh on my face.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

**Normal Pov**

Juliunna was nervous on her way to Hogsmead. Draco was walking beside her on the road, whispering out pointers. "Back straight. Smile. Stop scratching your arm. You look nice, but I want you to act nice." Draco repeated. She had been so happy when it had started to snow. Draco had then allowed her to wear pants and jacket. She was wearing a regular pair of jeans and an overlarge black shirt. Not that you could see most of it behind Draco's large hoodie she was wearing. "I've got it Draco." She said with a smile.

She skipped down the snow filled road with a smile. Most of the people on the road didn't bother them. "Where are Crabbe and Goyle? Its pretty weird that they aren't here." Juliunna said. Draco shrugged with a smile.

"Their still in the hospital wing. Besides, I told them to stay behind. My parents are meeting you, not them."

"Your meeting Malfoy's parents?!" Ron said, and Draco pulled his wand out immediately. Juliunna spun around and grabbed Draco's wand hand, pulling it down.

"Yep." She said to Ron. The golden trio had been standing behind them. Draco put a hand on Juliunna's back and directed her faster down the road.

"Don't talk to them."

"I'm aware of that. Draco, they think we're up to no good." Juliunna whispered to Draco. "Or at least their thinking that _you_ are." She said with a smirk. Draco chuckled. Sure enough when they got to the end of Hogsmead road and entered Hogsmead, Harry had mysteriously disappeared from Ron and Hermione's side.

"He's under his invisibility cloak." Juliunna whispered, leaning into Draco's ear. Draco's nodded. "What a stupid git." He whispered to her.

"Alright, let's throw him off." Draco whispered. Juliunna looked behind her at the footsteps appearing in the deep snow. They were fairly away from the duo's.

"Now!" Draco snapped at her, grabbing her wrist. He tugged on her arm towards Zonko's and they both started running. The second they hit the huge and noisy shop, Draco shouted to her.

"We'll take the back, round the corner, and then get to the shop in flat timing." He shouted. They both ran as fast as they can, fighting through the crowd of people to get to the back doors.

"Budge up!" Draco shouted at a third year. He jumped and fell, making Draco laugh.

"That wasn't funny." Juliunna said as they ran into the backdoors. Juliunna and Draco threw them open and ran outside hitting the snow hard.

"Which turn?"

"Left." Draco said, and they both sprinted down the empty street.

"Think we lost him?" Draco asked as they rounded the corner. Juliunna sighed.

"Maybe. But he's notorious for his sneakiness. I think out of his whole five years, he was only caught once. But he still escaped major trouble!" Juliunna said. Draco and Juliunna slowed down as they reached the outside of a tea shop.

"How long is this going to take?" Juliunna whined, not wanting to do it anymore. Draco chuckled at her.

"Ten to twenty minutes tops. Don't worry, it'll be fine. Their going to love you!" Draco smiled. He opened the door and the both of them shuffled inside. All the while, Juliunna was talking to herself inside her head_. I don't care what they think of me. I don't care what they think of me. I really don't care what they think of me. Their only people. People who are just people. _She said to herself repeatedly. Draco grabbed her arm and led her towards the table in the back. Both of his parents were sitting at a small table, talking to themselves quietly.

"Draco!" Narcissa said, holding her hand up in greeting. Draco smiled at them. When Draco and Juliunna reached the table, she was glad when he pulled out her chair for her. She was wondering whether or not it was okay to sit. When was she to sit? How should she sit? It saved her a lot of thinking on her part.

"Mom, this is Juliunna." Draco smiled, sitting down next to Juliunna. Lucius and Narcissa looked at Juliunna clearly, and froze. The smiled dropped off of Narcissa's face.

"Oh man. Is it the outfit? Draco told me it was stupid but I didn't believe him-!"

"No! Its not what your wearing." Lucius said. He got up. "Draco, can I talk to you in private?" Lucius said. Draco nodded, a small glare on his face. Draco and Lucius walked over to a small column. Juliunna smiled at Narcissa softly.

"Hi."

"Hi." Narcissa said nervously.

_That is not a good sign._ Juliunna thought to herself. Behind the column, Draco and Lucius were whispering fiercely to each other.

"What is it?"

"Draco, you do realize who that is, right?" Lucius whispered, and the both of them looked at Juliunna. She was staring at the top of the table, trying to think.

"My friend."

"No. Draco, you don't even know how serious this just got. Three days ago, the Dark Lord brought up a topic at one of the meetings. The one you missed." Lucius started. Draco nodded, a cautious look on his face.

"Yeah, and what does that have to do with Juliunna?"

"He gave us a single picture to go on. When he heard of the portal that had opened up in Hogwarts, he told us a all a secret." Lucius started. "The Portal, while it had been reported in the Daily Prophet, the coordinates had been changed. You told me it had opened up on Hogwarts grounds, but you didn't describe it as a portal. More as a common port key vortex. Well the Daily Prophet reported it had been in London. And the Dark Lord… Well he believes that something or, _someone_ came out of it." Lucius said, pointing at Juliunna. Draco nodded. "You still haven't told me what this has to do with her-!"

"I'm getting to it. The Dark Lord said he has reasons to believe that she is his… Daughter. He wants her found." Lucius said. Draco frowned. He stared at Lucius.

**…**

** …**

"I'm not giving her away." Draco said. Lucius sighed.

"I didn't say that. But Draco… If you don't want the Dark Lord to have her, we can't take her in." He said.

"Wait… How do we even know she's his child?" Draco sighed.

"She matches the picture excitedly. I'm surprised you weren't stopped on the way here. There are guards looking for her all over Hogsmead." Lucius said. Draco sighed.

"Alright, but how would the Dark Lord even know what she looks like? As far as I'm concerned, she has no idea of her parentage. She said she was raised in an orphanage. Theirs no way he could get a picture."

"I don't know. Maybe she lied to you Draco. Or he found the picture while routing through the Orphanage she had grown up in." Lucius said. Draco nodded.

"Alright. I'll take her back to Hogwarts and make other arrangements for her." Draco sighed. "Alright son." Lucius said. He walked off to the table and nodded to Juliunna. "Narcissa we're leaving." Lucius said, and Juliunna crossed her arms with a frown. As Narcissa and Lucius rose up, Draco had a sudden thought. He could scare her with this information, or he can just decide not to tell her. Tell her or not?

Juliunna walked over to Draco the second Narcissa and Lucius left the shop. Draco took a deep breath. "It's a no."

"They hate me?" Juliunna frowned.

"No, no. Its just… I don't believe it's a very safe place you right now." He said. And Juliunna frowned suddenly. Is the Dark Lord living at Draco's house? She thought to herself, remember that she had read it on the internet.

"Yeah, okay. I can always live with someone else-!"

"I think its better if you stay at Hogwarts. After all, it is the safest place on Earth." Draco said. He then took Juliunna's arm.

"Your acting weird. What did you and your dad talk about?" She asked. Draco bit his lip as they walked towards the door.

"Nothing."

**…**

Juliunna had been currently sitting at a table in the library, a smile on her face as she read the textbook. "I can't wait till I get to cast my first spell-!"

"How bout now?"

She jumped. Harry had appeared behind her, his wand in hand. He pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. "I don't know if your wand was damaged or lost or something, but here. I can't imagine how it is to be surrounded by so much magic and not be able to cause any of it at least once." Harry said nicely, holding out the wand to her. Juliunna smiled at him. "Thank you."

She leaned forward and gripped the wand softly. She pulled it up and felt a surge of power and need move through her.

"So much… So many things I could do with this. You don't know it yet Harry, but there is so much power in your wand. What spell should I use?" She asked, and Harry pursed his lips softly in thought.

"Hmm… No idea. But hey, just give it a wave first. Try it out a little." Harry said.

Juliunna took a deep breath. She waved the wand and a surge of power blew through her wrists. Next to her, Harry was lifted up and out of his seat. He laughed. Gold light filled the room like a beautiful aura, and Juliunna smiled. "Your wand Harry. Here you go." She aid, and gave the wand a full wave. He fell back down and hit the seat softly.

"This is a nice wand Harry." She smiled at him nicely. "And you're a terrific guy."

"Thank you." Harry smiled at her. She handed him the wand, crossed her arms, and then sat back to admire the library.

"So, Hagrid back yet?" She asked him, and Harry shook his head yes. "Yeah, he came back during Christmas vacation… Wait… How would you know I would care?" Harry asked her. She shrugged.

"Well you do always hang with Hagrid. Its not a big secret. Anyway, Owl's coming up?"

"Yeah, in fact, they start next week." Harry said. Juliunna nodded.

"How's Umbridge treating you?" She asked. Harry sighed.

"Batty and hateful as ever." He muttered.

"Yeah. You know, we should totally hang out sometime." Juliunna said, and Harry nodded with a smile.

"Yeah, we should. So you and Malfoy aren't working out, eh?"

"No, no. We're still cool. He's been acting weird around me the last two days though. I'm not going to his house anymore." Juliunna said.

"His parents don't like you?"

"No. No… Its just that its not safe for me over at his house. Or so Draco claimed." Juliunna scowled darkly. Harry frowned at her a little.

"Well, its his loss." He said. Juliunna nodded. "Yeah. He doesn't want me to go over to the Weasleys either, or anyplace but here. He said Hogwarts is the safest place you can be."

"Well it is." Harry smiled. "Especially with Dumbledore here. But what do you think he wants you safe from?" Harry asked. Juliunna sighed. She supposed she could tell Harry this, after all. He was the one who believe that You Know Who was back all along.

"Okay. I think that Voldemort's the problem." Juliunna sighed. Harry nodded.

"Yes… That is the most logical reason. You realize that Malfoy is a death eater."

"No, of course he isn't a death eater. He's only fifteen." Juliunna said, waving him off. Harry sighed.

"Yeah, your right, But his parents are-!"

"Oh definitely." Juliunna laughed. Harry chuckled with her.

"But… Do you think that it goes deeper then that?" Harry asked her. She frowned.

"Deeper then what?" Juliunna asked him, and Harry leaned forward.

"Well, the prospect of Voldemort getting you is scary, yes of course. But still, he wouldn't single you out, right? I mean, unless your walking on the street holding a sign that _says 'come and get me Voldemort, I'm the strongest witch in the world and I'm challenging you'_ , theirs no reason for him to kill you."  
"Your right. But now that you mention it, what if theirs a reason for Voldemort to single me out? What if he thinks I'm a threat, or maybe an asset? When I met Draco's parents, Draco and Lucius went off to talk about something. Draco won't tell me what they were talking about, but I know they were talking about me. But theirs something else. Lucius and Narcissa seemed pretty scared of me for some reason when I met them." Juliunna said. Harry hummed in thought.

"That seems suspicious."

"It does. But Draco won't tell me what's up." Juliunna said with a scowl. Harry threw his arm around her shoulders with a soft frown.

"Yeah, but whatever it is, I'm sure its not that bad." He shrugged lightly. Juliunna nodded.

"Yeah, I guess your right." She said with a shrug.

** ...**

After Defense Against the Dark Arts with a suddenly paranoid Draco, he was giving her lessons. "I promise you. I wrote a letter to my father yesterday. We're getting you a wand." Draco said. Juliunna groaned and sat down on the couch. He was given her pointers on how to use spells. Yesterday he had took her wand measurements with a tape measurer and sent them to his father.

"Hopefully you'll be good at this. I've never taught before, but I hope its easy. Juliunna, are you listening?" Draco asked her. They were sitting in the Slytherin Common Room, watching the fire as they talked. "Yeah." She said, crossing her arms.

"And won't leave me alone." She sang when Draco stayed silent. She tapped her hands on her legs, in thought as she sang.

"I'm just trying to look out for you. You seem perfectly capable of handling yourself against a normal wizard but…" He said, looking at her closely.

"Thank you." She said.

"Okay…" Draco said. Taking a deep breath. She turned to him. "Draco your acting weird. Whats up?" She asked him. He froze.

…

…

…

"Oh I can't take this anymore! If this friendship is going to work we have to stop lieing to each other! I'm going to tell you." He breathed out. Juliunna turned to him excitedly.

"What is it Dray?"

"A week ago, at the tea shop with my parents… My father told me something about your parentage." Draco said. Juliunna's smile dropped. The word _muggle borne_ ran through her head.

"Um… Really?"

"Yes. Juliunna… Juliunna your father is You know who." Draco whispered. Juliunna froze.

"Wait… What?!" She cried out.

"You heard me. He's looking for you. He doesn't know your at Hogwarts but I have a feeling he will soon." He whispered. He leaned forward, as there were still ten Slytherins lurking in the common room. Juliunna took a deep breath.

"Alright… but do you think its possible that I'm not the right person?" Juliunna asked.

"My dad sent me the photo of the Dark Lord's daughter. Its you." Draco sighed. Juliunna sat back with a thick and annoyed groan.

"Well this definitely makes things complicated." She sighed.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Hogsmead Trip

**Juliunna Pov**

Madaija and I had made up within a period of two days. She told me that what I had done was foolish but hey, its not like I'm going to adjust to societies rules! But still, I'll always be smart and intelligent, but I highly doubt I'll keep finding best friends like her.

"Come on, you have to see this!" I said. After what I did with Tyler, I was sure that I could do this with Madaija. There was just the problem that she didn't want to cuddle with me in public.

"But… Its weird!"

"No its not-!"

"People are going to see-!"

"I'm telling you! Its like nothing else I've ever seen-!"

"But what your talking about Jules… Its weird." Madaija said. I sighed. "Alright, here you go. Here's a piece of gum. Just lay your head on your shoulder and listen to this music. You'll go with me." I told her.

"Fine!" She said. It took five minutes, but Madaija and I finally got into a comfortable position. We softly floated into a sleeping oblivion, and I couldn't help but feel myself bristle when I heard Taylor laughing.

**Fifteen Minutes Later**

"Wow!" Madaija said. I don't like taking people in here usually, mostly because its weird and its not fun to tell them that this happens. After all, people think I'm crazy when I tell them when I fall asleep on a book I end up going into it. Plus no one can really understand me when I tell them I'm able to go into a conscious/ unconscious state. Good thing Madaija is crazy.

But I'm insane. It's a difference.

The both of us walked through the empty Great Hall, a smile on both of our faces. Madaija's eyes were wider then mine have ever been.

"Why! Were' at Hogwarts! Right? Where they eat dinner and everything!" Madaija laughed. She had seen the first movie and read the first book last year.

"Yep. Come on, I have to show you the Slytherin Common Room." I said excitedly. I dragged her into the hallway and walked over to the stairs. But before I could get down them, there was a tap on my shoulder. Madaija turned around. "Tyler-!"

"Oh not you again!" I groaned, turning around to face him.

"Hello ladies. Madaija, haven't seen you in a while." Tyler said, and Madaija smirked at me. "I get it. You like him so much you bring him into your dreams every night!"

"Ah I wish." Tyler said, smirking. He reached forward and grabbed my waist. He jetted me forward and I slammed into his chest. Madaija giggled, unnoticing the danger.

"Get off me!" I snapped at him. He let go of me with a laugh. "So, you let her in?"

"Yes." Madaija said, rolling her eyes at him. "And I can't believe you didn't take me in before. I love supernatural stuff like this! Tyler, how did you get in?" Madaija asked him. Tyler leaned back and watched me, his eyes flashing heatedly.

"I'm just as open-minded as Juliunna. Honestly, I believe this is all happening in our heads. Until she brought you in."

"I think I unlocked more then ten percent of my brain." I said with a shrug. Madaija turned to her. "Heh?"

"Don't ask, she's just going to talk more intelligent bull-!"

"Hey!" I snapped. But behind me, footsteps came up the stairs. Tyler glared and immediately walked away, visibly fuming with his gorilla arms swinging at both sides of his handsome body.

Draco surfaced at the top and smiled at me. "Hey. Why'd you wander off. And who's this?" Draco asked, looking to Madaija pleasantly. Without looking away, Madaija slapped my arm hard. "That's! That's Draco Malfoy!" She breathed out.

"Um, yes I am." Draco smiled. He held out his hand and Madaija shook it feverishly. "Hi. I'm Madaija Maldonado! Juliunna's best friend."

"From home." I commented. Madaija nodded. "Yep."

"Oh, I haven't seen you around here lately. Will you both come down here with me? I want to show you something, Jules." He said.

Madaija and I nodded. "Yep. Of course." I said. He grabbed my hand and led me downstairs. "I have a present for you-!"

"Oh for me, you shouldn't have!" Madaija squealed excitedly. She leaned closer to me to whisper. "Jules? Is Harry Potter here?"

"Yep."

"How about Ron Weasley? And Hermione? I want to meet Ron Weasley!" Madaija whined. Draco looked over to her, annoyed. I laughed. "You'll meet them later. I promise." I said. Draco shook his head, muttering under his breath as we turned the corner. We all sat down on the Slytherin common room couch.

"Here are your wands!" Draco said excitedly. "Father wasn't exactly sure what wand was the right one for you, but he gave your measurements to Ollivanders, and he sent me back these ten. One of them is the perfect one for you." Draco said. I squealed. Madaija dived for the bag of ones next to Draco. "A wand! I want a freaking wand!"

"Just wait a minute!" Draco glared at her. Madaija meowed like an angry cat. "Someone's angry." She said, hissing. Draco seethed. "That's it! Get out of here! Your not Slytherin! Your freaking annoying! Get out! Get out now!" He yelled at her. Madaija laughed, causing Draco to grope his pants for his wand. "Your dead-!"

"Draco stop it! Just calm down." I said, gripped his wrist tight. Madaija ran to the stairs. "I know she can be annoying, but she'll grow on you!"

He sighed. He sat down on the couch as Madaija sat down at the bottom of the steps.

"Annoying! That's insulting!" Madaija laughed, and Draco's face went dark red with anger. "So Dray, what were you saying about the wands?" I asked him. He handed me a small and thin box. "Here, try this one out." He said. I gave it a wave, and the effect was horrifying.

"Oh my gosh!" I cried out as Draco's hair was engulfed in flames. He patted it down till it was dry. "It's okay. I'm fine."

"Are you sure? That was scary. I didn't know that could happen-!"

"It's alright. I would have been surprised if you got it right the first time. I'm going to hand you this next one. When you give it a wave, point it at Professor Catmeowmers." Draco snarled Madaija's way. "Professor Catmeowers! That's hilarious-!"

"Just wave the wand." Draco snarled at me over Madaija's loud cackles. I took the wand he handed me next. I pointed it at Madaija and waved it.

"Blech!" She cried out. Her already long bangs flew over her forehead and down to her shoes. "Ech!"

"Sorry!" I giggled. "Only hair." Draco sighed. "Here, try this one. Maybe you'll accidentally freeze her over." He said hopefully.

Draco reached over to hand it to me, but I smiled. "Draco, you know what this is, right?" I said.

"No, what?"

"It's a complete copy of Harry Potter and the Dark Lord's wand! In the first year, Ollivanders mentioned that the phoenix in Harry's wand gave only two others! This is the triplet core! I'm a descent of my father, Voldemort's wand!" I said excitedly. Draco paled.

"How do you know this stuff?"

"I'm smart." I said, taking the wand from him. I gave it a wave and to my surprise, gold air and light flew through and around us, spreading across the dark and damp dungeon. "Draco, this happened in the library too, when I tried out Harry's wand. It's awesome. This is my wand!" I said. Draco nodded, a smile on his face. "Yeah." He said.

"Can we go see Harry Potter now?!" Madaija cried out boringly.

"Go see him yourself! We're having a moment!" Draco screamed at her angrily. Madaija cried out in mock fright and ran up the stairs. Draco turned back to me.

"Where did you meet here exactly? I want to write a very disapproving letter to the scientists who tested on her and befuddled her brain?" Draco said, and I giggled.

**Eh, I feel a little mushy right now. I'll just go for it.**

"She keeps me company. Especially at me old school." I murmured softly, sitting closer to Draco. He leaned closer as I leaned my head on his shoulder, snuggling into me heatedly.

"I didn't get a thank you." He said with a sheepish smile. I kept my eyes trained on the fire as Draco moved closer. The way my heart is beating… My feelings must be messing with the environmental outcome of this dream.

"Thank you Draco." I murmured, turning my head towards him. He leaned down and pressed his nose against mine. Slowly, I closed my eyes as we both leaned in. Our lips touch softy, molding into each others bodies. He leaned forward and gripped the small of my back, pressing me into his body. I relaxed my back as he held me. His kisses were soft and warm, and gentle against my lips. I knew no self control until I kissed him back.

It was like the sun had exploded when he parted my lips and touched his tongue with mine. He dug his fingers tighter into my hair and I cried out into his mouth out of surprise, making him groan. I reached up and gripped his face hard. He swirled his tongue around my mouth, and even stuck it down my throat, tickling my uvula.

"Mmm." I moaned, pushing Draco away. I gasped when his mouth detached from mine. There was a wanting look in his eyes, so hungry.

"So, how was it?" Draco asked me happily. I giggled. "That was… It tasted good." I smiled. He laughed. "I'm glad. It was awesome." He said. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pressed me closer to him.

"You're a great kisser." I said to him, giggling. He laughed. "You too."

…

Draco and I were sitting at the Great hall, watching Madaija over at the Gryffindor Table. She was jumping up and down excitedly, smiling and hitting Harry Potter on his shoulder repeatedly. "Omg. Harry, Harry whats this? Where's the sword of Gryffindor? Is your hair always like this? Your scar is heavy-! Wait?! How can a scar be heavy-!"

"I can't believe that I never noticed how crazy and dimwitted my friend was." I said, helping myself to a strawberry treckle pop tart. "Mm, these are the good kinds. Its got so much frosting on it. Its got a little rose on it!" I squealed quietly.

"Heh. These are the fancy type of pop tarts, you know. " Draco laughed. He gripped my shoulder tighter with a smirk.

Crabbe and Goyle chuckled excitedly when Draco leaned forward and pressed his lips to my cheek. "Mmm." He moaned. When he sat up, he smiled at me. "You taste like strawberries." He snickered, and I giggled. He ducked his face into my neck and started nibbling softly, making me chuckle, giggle, and shriek with glee. "Draco! Draco stop it!" I giggled when he dug his long and slender fingers into my ribs. "Who's a cutie baby?! Who's a cutie baby?!" Draco cooed repeatedly to me.

Crabbe and Goyle grabbed my other side, and I shrieked louder. I threw my arms around, trying to get away from them. "Stop it! Guys stop it!" I chortled. "Your killing me!" I said. My ribs had expanded, trying to succumb to the extra pressure Crabbe and Goyle had just put on me. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle let go of me, laughing.

"Ugh. That actually hurt." I said. But I was still giggling so they didn't take me seriously.

"I'm going to remember you like this." Draco said, stroking my hair.

"What, what do you mean remember?" I asked him.

"Well… Tomorrows our final owls. And then the day after the next day, people are loading up on the train." Draco said. I frowned. "I don't think I'm ready for you to leave." I said with a frown. Hogwarts is going to get terribly boring without everyone around.

"Oh, you'll get it over with." He said with a grim smile. "I'll owl you a lot. And we'll see each other when school starts back up in three months." He smiled. I frowned, but nodded. Something is going to happen. The whole point of me being here is to play throughout the whole story. But I ended up upon this place two weeks from when the story ends. I'm not going to play throughout the Hogwarts years, so what am I gonna pay? My unconscious mind is going to create a new feature to continue this story.

But the question is… Is this going to have to have something to do with the Dark Lord?

Of course it is!


	6. Chapter 6

**I realize now that its time to start taking account for events. This chapter takes place here:**

**Harry's scar had hurt during his exam the day after the last chapter. "**_**Voldemort had Sirius captured."**___

_**Well anyway, this is the scene where Harry snuck into Umbridge's office and tried to check on Sirius at Grimmauld Place. But of course, only Kreacher was there. Now I'm taking off to the point where Umbridge and The Inquisitor Squad has corned Harry, Hermione, Neville, Ron, Neville, and Ginny.**_

Chapter 6:

**Normal Pov**

_**(Inside Umbridge's Office)**_

There was a commotion outside and several large Slytherins entered, each gripping Ron, Ginny, Luna and to Harry's bewilderment - Neville, who was trapped in a stranglehold by Crabbe and looked in imminent danger of suffocation. All four of them had been gagged.

"Got 'em all," said Warrington, shoving Ron roughly forwards into the room. "That one," he poked a thick finger at Neville, ",tried to stop me taking her," he pointed at Ginny, who was trying to kick the shins of the large Slytherin girl holding her, "so I brought him along too."

"Good, good," said Umbridge, watching Ginny's struggles. "Well, it looks as though Hogwarts will shortly be a Weasley-free zone, doesn't it?"

Malfoy laughed loudly and sycophantically. Umbridge gave her wide, complacent smile and settled herself into a chintz-covered armchair, blinking up at her captives like a toad in a flowerbed.

"So, Potter," she said. "You stationed lookouts around my office and you sent this buffoon," She nodded at Ron, Malfoy laughed even louder. "To tell me the poltergeist was wreaking havoc in the Transfiguration department when I knew perfectly well that he was busy smearing ink on the eyepieces of all the school telescopes, Mr. Filch having just informed me so.

Clearly, it was very important for you to talk to somebody. Was it Albus Dumbledore? Or the half-breed, Hagrid? I doubt it was Minerva McGonagall, I hear she is still too ill to talk to anyone."

Malfoy and a few of the other members of the Inquisitorial Squad laughed some more at that. Harry found he was so full of rage and hatred he was shaking.

"It's none of your business who I talk to," He snarled.

Umbridge's slack face seemed to tighten. She stood up.

"Very well," she said in her most dangerous and falsely sweet voice. "Very well, Mr. Potter . . . I offered you the chance to tell me freely. You refused. I have no alternative but to force you. Draco, fetch Professor Snape."

**Juliunna Pov**

**(****Outside Umbridge's Office)**

I opened my eyes, entering my riddled dream like state of reality. I was faced a large, white and wooden door. Hmm, why should I be here-!

The door opened wide, and so did my eyes. Draco sauntered forward, smirking, but froze when he noticed me. "Juliunna-!"

Ignoring him, my jaw opened wide as I stared over his shoulder. Harry was on his back, pressed against the desk. A Professor was standing over him, her eyes wide and angry. He was staring back at her with determined and heated angry. Draco tried to stop me, but I pushed him out of the way and walked in. Draco whispered in my ear quickly, but my eyes were trained on the Slytherins holding the five children hostage.

"Draco," I started, for everyone's eyes were on me now. "Juliunna." Harry said, more out of shock.

"What is this?" I said, my voice cracking, but Draco grabbed my shoulder. He was trying to pull me back to the hallway.

"I'll escort her back to the common room and get Snape then." He said.

"Draco what is going on here?" I snapped at him. "Why are they holding them hostage?!"

"Their not hostages!" He said, a look of amusement on his face. "We were just playing a game-!"

"You liar!" Harry shouted.

"Silence!" The short woman said, jabbing her fingers into Harry's chest, making him wince.

I turned and ran out the door, but with a loud yell, the Professor screamed at Draco. "Get her now!"

I whipped my wand out and turned around, for with a loud slam of the door, Draco was walking towards me.

"Don't even try it!"

"I'm not going to try anything!" He snapped. I twirled my wand between my fingers. "Oh really?"

"Yes."

"What's going on?"

"Juliunna-!"

"What the hell is going on Malfoy?!" I snapped. I didn't know many spells yet, in fact, since the first time I got this wand, I haven't used it once.

"They just got caught in a conspiracy." Draco said, stepping forward. He was getting closer now, and I couldn't tell whether he was cautious because he was afraid or because he was going to strike out at me.

"What kind of conspiracy?" I asked slowly, stepping back.

"Potter was looking for Sirius Black in Umbridge's fireplace, the only one in the school that's not being policed." He said, and I nodded. I took one small step back, but Draco was quicker. He lunged forward fast, and before I could fully raised my wand he grabbed wand wrist tightly, and to my shock, pointed the tip into his own neck.

"Go on, you seemed so keen on being a hero a minute ago. Go ahead and do it. Cast that spell." He smirked at me. I glared at him. He knows I can't! I don't know any!

"Fine." I said. "Good thing I made a trip to the library earlier." I lied. His naturally pale face flushed slightly. "Your lieing"

"You want to bet that?" I said, narrowing my dark eyes. He sighed and gripped my wrist loosely. He pulled it away from his throat, and there was a second when we were both staring at each other. Him holding my wrist tightly in place between us. Then-!

He spun me around hard so that my back was to him, him holding my wrist behind my head painfully. There was a loud bang and green sparks flew out of my wand and hit the ceiling, disappearing upon hitting the stone walls. I almost cried out in pain from the force he was putting on my wrist. But I snarled in anger when he managed to pluck my wand out of my cramped hands.

"Oh come on. That was too easy!" He laughed.

"That's not funny!" I snarled at him, but we both went silent. Professor Snape had just rounded the corner, obviously drawn from the loud noise my wand had made.

"What is going on?" He said, raising an eyebrow at Draco. Draco laughed. "We were just playing around, Professor. Oh, and Professor Umbridge needs you in there." Draco said, jetting his head towards Umbridge's office. Professor Snape swept pass me and Draco, a drawling and forced look on his face.

I felt like snapping out at him when he didn't even offer to help. I was obviously in pain, and he's just going to walk on by! He walked into Umbridge's office and when the door was shut completely, Draco released me.

"Argh!" I snapped, turning around with a great look of betrayal.

"I was just kidding."

"Well it hurts." I whined.

"Hold on." He said with a smile. He pointed my own wand at my wrist and whispered something. Slowly, as if the pain was draining out of my wrist, it began to feel better. I smiled.

"Thank you." I said serenely. But then I remembered what was happening in, in that wretched woman's-! Professor Umbridge's office, as Draco had called her.

"Your welcome, come on, I'll take you back to the-!"

He shut up instantly and threw an arm around my shoulder. He and I ran down the hall and rounded the corner.

"I don't want to leave." I said, but just then, Professor Snape opened the door to Umbridge's office to exit. Draco took me by the shoulder and we took the vanishing staircase two steps at a time. At least, _he_ did, but I was being basically dragged.

"What do you mean?" He whispered harshly. He and I rounded the corner of the staircase into a small corner, and I laid against the wall.

"Tell me the rest of the story. What happened after you guys caught Harry trying to talk to Sirius?" I asked, and Draco looked at the staircase nervously. Three pairs of feet were walking down the stairs. He pulled me deeper into the shadows of the corner. There was a small bend just enough for us to squeeze through, but before Draco could push me, I saw who it was and stopped him. It was Harry, Hermione, and Umbridge. She was holding them at wand point.

"Draco-!"

He wrapped on arm around my waist and covered my mouth with his hand. He pulled me flush against his chest. "Shush! It isn't safe to talk." He whispered, and dragged me back until we were completely covered in darkness.

"What do you mean?" I whispered. His eyes flickered over the three of them as they passed by, not noticing us in the slightest. When they had walked down the rest of the stairs and around the corner, Draco released me.

"Don't you ever do that again-!"

"Come on, we need to go check on the rest." He said, and was about to walk pass me, but stopped in his tracks.

"Sorry for being secretive. Its just that, there were portraits along the wall looking at us. And I'm sure that a few of them have access to my house. If You Know Who found out and figured that we were being traitorous, why, even knowing you and not telling him is traitorous, but still…" He drifted off, staring at the wall. I understood.

"Alright." I nodded.

"Anyway, let's go." He said. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back up the stairs. We were taking them at a run.

"Why would she take those two by herself?" Draco muttered. "I wonder what happened." He whispered to himself. When we reached the door, the four of them were still struggling amongst the Slytherins.

"Nice job boys." Draco commented, and he was smirking wildly.

"Dray." I snarled. But I noticed Ron's hands etching towards Goyle's pockets. A small smirk etched across my face as I watched Ron slip his hand into an unaware Goyle's pocket, groping for his wand.

…

**Normal Pov **

"Well, we can't do anything without wands," Said Hermione hopelessly, dragging herself up again. 'They were now on the outskirts of the forest, having just escaped Umbridge deep in the Forbidden Forest Woods. There was no time to waste. Sirius need his help! "Anyway, Harry, how exactly were you planning to get all the way to London?'

"Yeah, we were just wondering that." Said a familiar voice from behind her.

Harry and Hermione moved together instinctively and peered through the trees.

Ron came into sight, closely followed by Ginny, Neville and Luna. Behind them was Juliunna, walking shyly. All of them except for Jules looked a little the worse for wear. There were several long scratches running the length of Ginny's cheek; a large purple lump was swelling above Neville's right eye; Ron's lip was bleeding worse than ever - but all were looking rather pleased with themselves.

"So," said Ron, pushing aside a low-hanging branch and holding out Harry's wand, "Had any ideas?"

"How did you get away?" asked Harry in amazement, taking his wand from Ron.

"Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx," Said Ron airily, now handing back Hermione's wand, too. "But Ginny was best, she got Malfoy - Bat Bogey Hex - it was superb, his whole face was covered in the great flapping things. Anyway, we saw you out of the window heading into the Forest and followed. What've you done with Umbridge?"

"She got carried away," Said Harry. "By a herd of centaurs."

"And they left you behind?" Asked Ginny, looking astonished.

"No, they got chased off by Grawp,'" Said Harry. He turned to Juliunna. "So your on our side huh, Slytherin?" He smiled slightly. She nodded.

"Yes."

"But aren't you with Malfoy? How did he take you switching sides?"

"Well, I pretty much took my wand back from him and followed them out." She said, gesturing to Ron and Neville and Ginny and Luna. "Besides, I don't think he knows I'm gone yet. He couldn't see through those things attacking his face. Nice job Ginny." She added with a smile.

"Thank you." Ginny smiled at her.

"Who's Grawp?" Luna asked interestedly.

"Hagrid's little brother," Said Ron promptly. "Anyway, never mind that now. Harry, what did you find out in the fire? Has You-Know-Who got Sirius or-!"

"Yes," Said Harry, as his scar gave another painful prickle, ",Aand I'm sure Sirius is still alive, but I can't see how we're going to get there to help him."

They all fell silent, looking rather scared; the problem facing them seemed insurmountable.

"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" said Luna, in the closest thing to a matter-of-fact voice Harry had ever heard her use.

"OK," Said Harry irritably, rounding on her. "First of all, 'we' aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second of all, Ron's the only one with a broomstick that isn't being guarded by a security troll, so-!"

"I've got a broom!" said Ginny.

"Yeah, but you're not coming,'"said Ron angrily.

"Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!" said Ginny, her jaw set so that her resemblance to Fred and George was suddenly striking.

"You're too-!" Harry began, but Ginny said fiercely, "I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Philosophers Stone, and it's because of me that Malfoy's stuck back in Umbridge's office with giant flying bogies attacking him-!"

"Yeah, but-!"

"We were all in the DA together," said Neville quietly. '"It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real, or was that all just a game or something?"

"No, of course it wasn't-!" Said Harry impatiently.

"Then we should come too," said Neville simply. "We want to help."

"That's right," Said Luna, smiling happily.

Harry's eyes met Ron's. He knew Ron was thinking exactly what he was: if he could have chosen any members of the DA, in addition to himself, Ron and Hermione, to join him in the attempt to rescue Sirius, he would not have picked Ginny, Neville or Luna.

"Well, it doesn't matter, anyway," said Harry through gritted teeth, "Because we still don't know how to get there-!"

"I thought we'd settled that," said Luna maddeningly. "We're flying!"

"Look," Said Ron, barely containing his anger, "you might be able to fly without a broomstick but the rest of us can't sprout wings whenever we-!"

"There are ways of flying other than with broomsticks," said Luna serenely.

"I suppose we're going to ride on the back of the Kacky Snorgle or whatever it is?" Ron demanded.

"The Crumple-Horned Snorkack can't fly," said Luna in a dignified voice, "But_ they _can, and Hagrid says they're very good at finding places their riders are looking for."

Harry whirled round. Standing between two trees, their white eyes gleaming eerily, were two Thestrals, watching the whispered conversation as though they understood every word.

"Yes!" he whispered, moving towards them. They tossed their reptilian heads, throwing back long black manes, and Harry stretched out his hand eagerly and patted the nearest one's shining neck; how could he ever have thought them ugly?

"Is it those mad horse things?" Said Ron uncertainly, staring at a point slightly to the left of the Thestral Harry was patting. 'Those ones you can't see unless you've watched someone snuff it?'

"Yeah," said Harry.

"Ahhh!" Juliunna screamed, and threw herself on the floor. Harry had just watched a Thestral lick her cheek.

"What is it-!"

"Don't worry! It's just a baby pony that's invisible." Harry lied for her sake. She let out a deep breath. "Okay." She said lightly.

"How many?" Ron asked, trying not to laugh at Juliunna on the floor. Ginny helped her up softly.

"Just two."

"Well, we need three," Said Hermione, who was still looking a little shaken, but determined just the same.

"Four, Hermione," said Ginny, scowling.

"I think there are seven of us, actually," said Luna calmly, counting.

"Don't be stupid, we can't all go!" said Harry angrily. "Look, you four-!" He pointed at Neville, Juliunna, Ginny and Luna, "You're not involved in this, you're not-!"

They burst into more protests. His scar gave another, more painful, twinge. Every moment they delayed was precious; he did not have time to argue.

"OK, fine, it's your choice," he said curtly, "But unless we can find more Thestrals you're not going to be able-!"

"Oh, more of them will come," said Ginny confidently, who like Ron was squinting in quite the wrong direction, apparently under the impression that she was looking at the horses.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because, in case you hadn't noticed, you and Hermione are both covered in blood," she said coolly, "and we know Hagrid lures Thestrals with raw meat. That's probably why these two turned up in the first place."

Harry felt a soft tug on his robes at that moment and looked down to see the closest Thestral licking his sleeve, which was damp with Grawp's blood.

'OK, then," he said, a bright idea occurring, "Ron and I will take these two and go ahead, and Hermione can stay here with you four and she'll attract more Thestrals-!"

"I'm not staying behind!" said Hermione furiously.

"There's no need,' said Luna, smiling. "Look, here come more now . . . you two must really smell . . ."

Harry turned: no fewer than six or seven Thestrals were picking their way through the trees, their great leathery wings folded tight to their bodies, their eyes gleaming through the darkness. He had no excuse now.

"All right," He said angrily, "Pick one and get on, then."  
**…**

**Juliunna Pov**

Harry wound his hand tightly into the mane of the nearest Thestral, placed a foot on a stump nearby and scrambled clumsily on to the horse's silken back. It did not object, but twisted its head around, fangs bared, and attempted to continue its eager licking of his robes. They were rich with Gawps blood.

"Ugh." I started, walking beside Harry as people started to get up on their own horses. "Harry?"

"Yes?" He asked me, looking at his horse. I couldn't see it, but it was definitely there. Harry was in horseback riding position

"Harry, could I ride with you? I'm afraid. And well, I get very clumsy when I'm afraid and… I've never rode anything like this before-!"

"Of course. Grab my hand." He said, and held out his arm. I grabbed it quickly and he pulled me up onto the horse. When I felt like I was on it completely, I reached out and wrapped my legs neatly around Harry's waist and sat my feet in his lap.

"You don't mind, do you Harry?" I asked, and he shook his head no. "I'm fine." He said nicely.

"So, Department of Ministries?" I smiled. Harry nodded, but his back was bristling suspiciously.

"How'd you know-!"

"Anyway Harry, look at this." I said, wanting to show him my wand, but everyone was finally seated on their brooms. Harry noticed this and turned around to silent me immediately. "Give me a second Juliunna. Hurry up guys!"

"This is mad," Ron murmured, moving his free hand gingerly up and down his horses neck. "Mad . . . if I could just see it-!"

"You'd better hope it stays invisible," said Harry darkly. "We all ready, then?"

"Yep." I said.

They all nodded and he saw five pairs of knees tighten beneath their robes.

"OK . . ."

He looked down at the back of his Thestral's glossy black head and swallowed.

"Ministry of Magic, visitors entrance, London, then," he said uncertainly. "Er . . . if you know . . . where to go . . ."

For a moment our Thestral did nothing at all; then, with a sweeping movement that nearly unseated us, the wings on either side extended; the horse crouched slowly, then rocketed upwards so fast and so steeply that Harry had to clench his arms and legs tightly around the horse, and I had to clench my arms and legs tightly around him, to avoid sliding backwards over its bony rump. He closed his eyes and pressed his face down into the horses silky mane as they burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a blood-red sunset. I put my head down in his shoulder. "I hate roller coasters." I moaned. Harry chuckled dryly from his spot.

"Really, I never rode one."

"Don't talk. I think I'll get sick if I keep talking." I whispered.

He didn't say a word, horrified of me getting sick on him.

I don't think I've ever moved so fast: the Thestral streaked over the castle, its wide wings hardly beating; the cooling air was slapping Harry and I's face; eyes screwed up against the rushing wind, he looked round and saw the others soaring along behind him, each of them bent as low as possible into the neck of their Thestral to protect themselves from the slipstream.

They were over the Hogwarts grounds, they had passed Hogsmeade; I could see mountains and gullies below them. As the daylight began to fail, Harry saw small collections of lights as they passed over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car was beetling its way home through the hills . . .

"This is bizarre!' I barely heard Ron yell from somewhere behind him, and I was imagined how it must feel to be speeding along at this height with no visible means of support. At least I have Harry to hold onto.

Twilight fell. The sky was turning to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars, and soon only the lights of Muggle towns gave us any clue of how far from the ground they were, or how very fast we were traveling. Harry's arms were wrapped tightly around his horse's neck as he willed it to go even faster. I wonder how it would feel like to be in his place, in great worry and terror about a close relative.

Maybe, just maybe, I should have stayed back at Hogwarts with Draco Malfoy. But no, I'd rather be doing what's right and in danger then doing what's wrong and in safety-!

Oh forget it! I'm here now and I can't do anything about it!

Onward we flew through the gathering darkness; My face felt stiff and cold, my legs numb from gripping the Thestral's sides so tightly, but I did not dare shift my position lest I slip . . . I was deaf from the thundering rush of air in my ears, and my mouth was dry and frozen from the cold night wind. I had lost all sense of how far they had come; all my faith was in the beast beneath me and Harry, still streaking purposefully through the night, barely flapping its wings as it sped ever onwards. I tried to hang onto Harry tightly and not so tightly. I didn't want to make him fall just in case, because if he went… I went.

My stomach gave a jolt; the Thestral's head was suddenly pointing towards the ground and I actually slid forwards a few inches along Harry's back.

"Sorry." I said, but Harry didn't say anything, greatful for the sudden warmth. We were descending at last . . . Harry and I thought we heard a shriek behind us and twisted around dangerously, but could see no sign of a falling body . . . presumably they had all received a shock from the change of direction, just as we had.

And now bright orange lights were growing larger and rounder on all sides; we could see the tops of buildings, streams of headlights like luminous insect eyes, squares of pale yellow that were windows. Quite suddenly, it seemed, we were hurtling towards the pavement; Harry gripped the Thestral with every last ounce of his strength, braced for a sudden impact, but the horse touched the dark ground as lightly as a shadow. Harry and I slid from its back, looking around at the street where the overflowing skip still stood a short way from the vandalized telephone box, both drained of color in the flat orange glare of the streetlights.

"It's beautiful." I whispered, and for some reason, Harry turned away, flushed.

Ron landed a short way off and toppled immediately from his Thestral on to the pavement.

"Never again," he said, struggling to his feet. He made as though to stride away from his Thestral, but, unable to see it, collided with its hindquarters and almost fell over again.  
"Never, ever again . . . that was the worst-!"

Hermione and Ginny touched down on either side of him: both slid off their mounts a little more gracefully than Ron, though with similar expressions of relief at being back on firm ground; Neville jumped down, shaking; and Luna dismounted smoothly.

"Where do we go from here, then?" she asked Harry in a politely interested voice, as though this was all a rather interesting day-trip. I looked to Harry with a frown.

"Over here," He said. He gave his Thestral a quick, grateful pat, then led the way quickly to the battered telephone box and opened the door. I climbed in and flattened myself against the wall. "Come on!" He urged the others, as they hesitated.

Ron and Ginny marched in obediently; Hermione, Neville and Luna squashed themselves in after them; Harry took one glance back at the Thestrals, now foraging for scraps of rotten food inside the skip, and then forced himself into the box after Luna.

'Whoever's nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!' he said.

Ron did it, his arm bent bizarrely to reach the dial; as it whirred back into place the cool female voice sounded inside the box.

'Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business.'

"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger,' Harry said very quickly, "Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and Juliunna…"

"Not important." I said immediately.

"Okay . . . and we're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!'

"Thank you," said the cool female voice. "Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

Half a dozen badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins normally appeared. Hermione scooped them up and handed them mutely to Harry over Ginny's head;

I glanced at the topmost one, _**Harry Potter, Rescue Mission.**_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

**Normal Pov**

"Visitors to the Ministry" you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk" which is located at the far end of the Atrium.'

"Fine!" Harry said loudly" as his scar gave another throb. "Now can we move?"

The floor of the telephone box shuddered and the pavement rose up past its glass windows; the scavenging Thestrals were sliding out of sight; blackness closed over their heads and with a dull grinding noise they sank down into the depths of the Ministry of Magic.

A chink of soft golden light hit their feet and" widening" rose up their bodies. Harry bent his knees and held his wand as ready as he could in such cramped conditions as he peered through the glass to see whether anybody was waiting for them in the Atrium but it seemed to be completely empty. The light was dimmer than it had been by day; there were no fires burning under the mantelpieces set into the walls, but as the lift slid smoothly to a halt he saw that golden symbols continued to twist sinuously in the dark blue ceiling.

"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening." said the woman's voice.

The door of the telephone box burst open; Harry toppled out of it, closely followed by Neville and Luna. The only sound in the Atrium was the steady rush of water from the golden fountain, where jets from the wands of the witch and wizard, the point of the centaur's arrow, the tip of the goblin's hat and the house-elf's ears continued to gush into the surrounding pool.

"Come on," said Harry quietly and the six of them sprinted off down the hall, Harry in the lead, past the fountain towards the desk where the watch wizard who had weighed Harry's wand had sat, and which was now deserted.

Harry felt sure there ought to be a security person there, sure their absence was an ominous sign, and his feeling of foreboding increased as they passed through the golden gates to the lifts. He pressed the nearest 'down' button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking and they dashed inside. Harry stabbed the number nine button; the grilles closed with a bang and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. Harry had not realized how noisy the lifts were on the day he had come with Mr. Weasley; he was sure the noise would raise every security person within the building, yet when the lilt halted, the cool female voice said, "Department of Mysteries," and the grilles slid open. They stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving out but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift.

Harry turned towards the plain black door. After months and months of dreaming about it, he was here at last.

"Let's go," he whispered, and he led the way down the corridor, Luna right behind him, gazing around with her mouth slightly open.

"OK, listen," said Harry, stopping again within six feet of the door. "Maybe . . . maybe a couple of people should stay here as a-! As a lookout, and-!"

"And how're we going to let you know something's coming?" asked Ginny, her eyebrows raised. "You could be miles away."

"We're coming with you, Harry." said Neville.

"Let's get on with it," said Ron firmly.

"Um, Harry?" Juliunna started. "I believe that there is something important I should tell you, if we're actually going to be face to face with You-Know-Who-!"

"Juliunna shush." Harry whispered, for the door in front of them had just swung open.

"But Harry-!"

"Everyone, take out your wands."

"Well, my wand is only one part of the thing I'm trying to make you aware of-!"

"Let's go." Harry said, too worried about Sirius to pay attention to her. Juliunna gave up, grit her teeth, and followed Harry down the hallway.

They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling; identical, unmarked, handle less black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue; their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor made it look as though there was dark water underfoot.

"Someone shut the door," Harry muttered.

They all regretted him giving this order the moment Neville had obeyed it. Without the long chink of light from the torch lit corridor behind them, the place became so dark that for a moment the only things they could see were the bunches of shivering blue flames on the walls and their ghostly reflections in the floor.

In his dream, Harry had always walked purposefully across this room to the door immediately opposite the entrance and walked on. But there were around a dozen doors here. Just as he was gazing ahead at the doors opposite him, trying to decide which was the right one, there was a great rumbling noise and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating.

For a few seconds, the blue flames around them were blurred to resemble neon lines as the wall sped around; then, quite as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped and everything became stationary once again.

Harry's eyes had blue streaks burned into them; it was all he could see.

"What was that about?" whispered Ron fearfully.

"I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in through," said Ginny in a hushed voice.

"She's right." Juliunna said wisely. "All the harder to get us to our destination. They obviously don't want anyone in here to find out their weird and most likely illegal objects." Juliunna smirked.

Harry realized at once she was right: he could no sooner identify the exit door than locate an ant on the jet-black floor; and the door through which they needed to proceed could be any one of the dozen surrounding them.

"How're we going to get back out?" said Neville uncomfortably.

"Well, that doesn't matter now," said Harry forcefully, blinking to try to erase the blue lines from his vision, and clutching his wand tighter than ever, "we won't need to get out till we've found Sirius -!"

"Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione said urgently; but Harry had never needed her advice less, his instinct was to keep as quiet as possible.

"Where do we go, then, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Ugh," Harry started, putting a hand on Juliunna's shoulder. She had been staring at a blue torch on the wall, as if hypnotized. When she showed no awareness of his hand on her shoulder, he spun her around, making her squeal. "Oops. Sorry Harry. So, what door?" She said, pale and in a small voice. He patted her shoulder one and then turned to look at all the doors.

…

**Juliunna Pov**

It must have took us at least ten minutes to get here. We had went pass a room with brains inside a fish tank, and a room with a large arch. Harry and I had to practically drag Ron and Ginny away, for they had tried to walk through it, in a trance. The whispers on the other side told me that it was a dangerous thing. And I dread to think what would have happened if they had walked through.

We were now in a room filled with small glass balls, covered with dust.

"Prophecies." Harry muttered to me. I nodded.

Harry edged forward and peered down one of the shadowy aisles between two rows of shelves. He could not hear anything or see the slightest sign of movement.

"You said it was row ninety-seven," whispered Hermione.

"Yeah," breathed Harry, looking up at the end of the closest row. Beneath the branch of blue-glowing candles protruding from it glimmered the silver figure fifty-three.

"We need to go right, I think," whispered Hermione, squinting to the next row. "Yes . . . that's fifty-four . . . "

"Keep your wands ready," Harry said softly.

They crept forward, glancing behind them as they went on down the long alleys of shelves, the further ends of which were in near-total darkness. Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelves. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown light bulbs.

They passed row eighty-four . . . eighty-five . . . Harry was listening hard for the slightest sound of movement, and I couldn't dread telling him that Sirius could already be dead.

"Ninety-seven!" whispered Hermione. We all crowded around it, trying to get a peek.

They stood grouped around the end of the row, gazing down the alley beside it. There was nobody there.

"He's right down at the end," said Harry, whose mouth had become slightly dry. "You can't see properly from here."

And he led them between the towering rows of glass balls, some of which glowed softly as they passed . . .

"He should be near here," whispered Harry, convinced that every step was going to bring the ragged form of Sirius into view on the darkened floor. "Anywhere here . . . really close . . ."

"Harry?" said Hermione tentatively, but he did not want to respond. His mouth was propping opening, frightened.

"Somewhere about . . . here . . ." he said.

They had reached the end of the row and emerged into more dim candlelight, there was nobody there. All was echoing, dusty silence.

"He might be . . ." Harry whispered hoarsely, peering down the next alley. "Or maybe . . ." He hurried to look down the one beyond that.

"Harry?" said Hermione again.

"What?" he snarled.

"I . . . I don't think Sirius is here." Hermione said. Harry's eyes were wide, and I pitied him greatly. I turned to look around at the walls. Ron was glancing at a large wall of prophecies.

He ran up the space at the end of the rows, staring down them. Empty aisle after empty aisle flickered past. He ran the other way, back past his staring companions. There was no sign of Sirius anywhere, nor any hint of a struggle. I frowned, it was sad to look at.

"Harry?" Ron called.

"What?"

"'Have you seen this?' said Ron.

"Have you seen this?" said Ron.

"What?" said Harry, but eagerly this time, obviously hoping for a clue to Sirius's whereabouts. We strode back to where they were all standing, a little way down row ninety-seven, but found nothing except Ron staring at one of the dusty glass spheres on the shelf.

"What?" Harry repeated glumly.

"It's…it's got your name on," said Ron.

Harry moved a little closer. Ron was pointing at one of the small glass spheres that glowed with a dull inner light, though it was very dusty and appeared not to have been touched for many years.

Expecting, even hoping, that something dramatic was going to happen, something exciting that might make their long and dangerous journey worth while after all, Harry lifted the glass ball down from its shelf and stared at it.

Nothing whatsoever happened. The others and I moved in closer around Harry, gazing at the orb as he brushed it free of the clogging dust. Inside it, I could see something. The face of a woman. But Harry and the others didn't show any sign of noticing this. "Oh, Harry, this is really important. I need to tell you now. Yesterday-!"

And then, from right behind me, a drawling voice spoke.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."

…

**Normal Pov**

Black shapes were emerging out of thin air all around them, blocking their way left and right; eyes glinted through slits in hoods, a dozen lit wand tips were pointing directly at their hearts; Ginny gave a gasp of horror.

"To me, Potter," repeated the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy as he held out his hand, palm up.

Harry's insides plummeted sickeningly. They were trapped, and outnumbered two to one.

"To me," said Malfoy yet again.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry said.

Several of the Death Eaters laughed; a harsh female voice from the midst of the shadowy figures to Harry's left said triumphantly, The Dark Lord always knows!'

"Always," echoed Malfoy softly. "Now, give me the prophecy, Potter."

"I want to know where Sirius is!"

"I want to know where Sirius is!" mimicked the woman to his left.

She and her fellow Death Eaters had closed in so that they were mere feet away from Harry and the others, the light from their wands dazzling Harry's eyes.

"You've got him," said Harry, ignoring the rising panic in his chest, the dread he had been fighting since they had first entered the ninety-seventh row. "He's here. I know he is."

"The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo,'" said the woman in a horrible, mock baby voice. Harry felt Ron stir beside him.

"Don't do anything," Harry muttered. "Not yet-!"

The woman who had mimicked him let out a raucous scream of laughter.

"You hear him? You hear him? Giving instructions to the other children as though he thinks of fighting us!"

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix," said Malfoy softly. "He has a great weakness for heroics; the Dark Lord understands this about him. Now give me the prophecy, Potter."

"I know Sirius is here," said Harry, though panic was causing his chest to constrict and he felt as though he could not breathe properly. "I know you've got him!"

More of the Death Eaters laughed, though the woman laughed loudest of all.

"It's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter," said Malfoy. "Now give me the prophecy, or we start using wands"

Harry watched Bellatrix. Juliunna had just winced horribly and took a small step back. Slowly, all the death eaters turned to her.

"Well, well, well." Bellatrix said, fingering the tip of her wand. Juliunna's breath hitched and she grabbed onto Harry's shoulder.

"What?" Harry snapped at Bellatrix, But the death eaters were closing in on each other, the faces that weren't covered with mask were smirking.

"Looks like this just became a double mission." Bellatrix smirked, her dark eyes narrowing into slits from behind her cloak.

"What?"

Juliunna stepped forward once and took out her wand. "Harry, I have a plan." She said aloud. Immediately, all the death eaters had their wands pointed at her. Harry wished he could tell her to shush.

"Yes, I am very adequate at magic at this point. In fact, this will be the first spell I will cast since I received this wand yesterday." Juliunna said, and the death eaters put their wands down, laughing.

"Oh no." Ron said, shaking his head.

"But, Ginny cast an interesting spell to get out of Umbridge's office. And I believe that it will work very well.

"Please don't be talking about Alohamora." Hermione said, frowning.

Juliunna took a deep breath, and pointed her wand in front of her. "Reducto!" She shouted.

Harry could have kissed her right then and there!

The Death Eaters dived apart, as glass orbs as far as the top shelves flew down from their spots. "Run!" Harry shouted, grabbing Juliunna's arms and threw her forward. "Run!" He snarled in her ear. She had momentarily froze, staring at the effect her spell had down. The children ran as fast as they could, trying to exit the room.

"RUN!" Everyone yelled, as the shelves swayed precariously and more glass spheres began to fall from above. He seized a handful of Hermione's robes and dragged her forwards, holding one arm over his head as chunks of shelf and shards of glass thundered down upon them. A Death Eater lunged forwards through the cloud of dust and Harry elbowed him hard in the masked face; they were all yelling, there were cries of pain, and thunderous crashes as the shelves collapsed upon themselves, weirdly echoing fragments of the Seers unleashed from their spheres.

Harry found the way ahead clear and saw Ron, Juliunna, Ginny and Luna sprint past him, their arms over their heads; something heavy struck him on the side of the face but he merely ducked his head and sprinted onwards; a hand caught him by the shoulder; he: heard Hermione shout, 'Stupefy!' The hand released him at once.

They were at the end of row ninety-seven; Harry turned right and began to sprint in earnest; he could hear footsteps right behind him and Hermione's voice urging Neville on; straight ahead, the door through which they had come was ajar; Harry could see the glittering light of the bell jar; he pelted through the doorway, the prophecy still clutched tight and safe in his hand, and waited for the others to hurtle over the threshold before slamming the door behind them - '

"Colloportus!" gasped Hermione and the door sealed itself with an odd squelching noise.

"Where - where are the others?" gasped Harry.

He had thought Ron, Luna, Juliunna, and Ginny were ahead of them, that they would be waiting in this room, but there was nobody there.

"They must have gone the wrong way!" whispered Hermione, terror in her face.

"Listen!" whispered Neville.

Footsteps and shouts echoed from behind the door they had just sealed; Harry put his ear close to the door to listen and heard Lucius Malfoy roar, "Leave Nott, leave him, I say - his injuries will be nothing to the Dark Lord compared to losing that prophecy. Jugson, come back here, we need to organize! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary But don't kill the girl. He'll have all of our heads. Be gentle with-! She's not the smallest. The black haired girl. Yes her. Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left; Crabbe, Rabastan, go right. Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead, Macnair and Avery, through here. Rookwood, over there - Mulciber, come with me!"

"What do we do?" Hermione asked Harry, trembling from head to foot.

"Well, we don't stand here waiting for them to find us, for a start." said Harry. "Let's get away from this door…. Why do they want Juliunna?" Harry asked. But no one could answer that.

They ran as quietly as they could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and unhatching, towards the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. They were almost there when Harry heard something large and heavy collide with the door Hermione had charmed shut.

"Stand aside!" said a rough voice. "Alohamora!"

As the door flew open, Harry, Hermione and Neville dived under desks. They could see the bottom of the two Death Eaters' robes drawing nearer, their feet moving rapidly.

"They might've run straight through to the hall," said the rough voice.

"Check under the desks,'" said another.

Harry saw the knees of the Death Eaters bend; poking his wand out from under the desk, he shouted, "STUPEFY!"

A jet of red light hit the nearest Death Eater; he fell backwards into a grandfather clock and knocked it over; the second Death Eater, however, had leapt aside to avoid Harry's spell and was pointing his own wand at Hermione, who was crawling out from under the desk to get a better aim.

"Avada-!"

Harry launched himself across the floor and grabbed the Death Eater around the knees, causing him to topple and his aim to go awry. Neville overturned a desk in his anxiety to help; and pointing his wand wildly at the struggling pair, he cried:

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

Both Harry's and the Death Eater's wands flew out of their hands and soared back towards the entrance to the Hall of Prophecy; both scrambled to their feet and charged after them, the Death Eater in front, Harry hot on his heels, and Neville bringing up the rear, plainly horrorstruck by what he had done.

"Get out of the way, Harry!" yelled Neville, clearly determined to repair the damage.

Harry flung himself sideways as Neville took aim again and shouted:

"STUPEFY!"

The jet of red light flew right over the Death Eaters shoulder and hit a glass-fronted cabinet on the wall full of variously shaped hour-glasses; the cabinet fell to the floor and burst apart, glass flying everywhere, sprang back up on to the wall, fully mended, then fell down again, and shattered.

The Death Eater had snatched up his wand, which lay on the floor beside the glittering bell jar. Harry ducked down behind another desk as the man turned; his mask had slipped so that he couldn't see. He ripped it off with his free hand and shouted: "STUP-!"

"STUPEFY!" screamed Hermione, who had just caught up with them. The jet of red light hit the Death Eater in the middle of his chest: he froze, his arm still raised, his wand fell to the floor with a flatter and he collapsed backwards towards the bell jar. Harry expected to hear a clunk, for the man to hit solid glass and slide off the jar on to the floor, but instead, his head sank through the surface of the bell jar as though it were nothing but a soap bubble and he came to rest, sprawled on his back on the table, with his head lying inside the jar full of glittering wind.

"Accio wand!" cried Hermione. Harry's wand flew from a dark corner into her hand and she threw it to him.

"Thanks," he said. "Right, let's get out of-!"

"Look out!" said Neville, horrified. He was staring at the Death Eater's head in the bell jar.

All three of them raised their wands again, but none of them struck: they were all gazing, open-mouthed, appalled, at what was happening to the man's head.

It was shrinking very fast, growing balder and balder, the black hair and stubble retracting into his skull; his cheeks becoming smooth, his skull round and covered with a peach like fuzz . . .

A baby's head now sat grotesquely on top of the thick, muscled neck of the Death Eater as he struggled to get up again; but even as they watched, their mouths open, the head began to swell to its previous proportions again; thick black hair was sprouting from the head and chin . . .

"It's Time," said Hermione in an awestruck voice. "Time."

The Death Eater shook his ugly head again, trying to clear it, but before he could pull himself together it began to shrink back to babyhood once more . . .

There was a shout from a room nearby, then a crash and a scream.

"**RON? JULIUNNA!"** Harry yelled, turning quickly from the monstrous transformation taking place before them. **"GINNY? LUNA?"**

"Harry!" Hermione screamed.

The Death Eater had pulled his head out of the bell jar. His appearance was utterly bizarre, his tiny baby's head bawling loudly while his thick arms flailed dangerously in all directions, narrowly missing Harry, who had ducked. Harry raised his wand but to his amazement Hermione seized his arm.

"You can't hurt a baby!"

There was no time to argue the point; Harry could hear more footsteps growing louder from the Hall of Prophecy and knew, too late, that he ought not to have shouted and given away their position.

"Come on!" He said, and leaving the ugly baby-headed Death Eater staggering behind them they took off for the door that stood open at the other end of the room, leading back into the black hallway.

They had run halfway towards it when Harry saw through the open door two more Death Eaters running across the black room towards them; veering left, he burst instead into a small, dark, cluttered office and slammed the door behind them.

"Collo-!" began Hermione, but before she could complete the spell the door had burst open and the two Death Eaters had come hurtling inside.

With a cry of triumph, both yelled:

"**IMPEDIMENTA."**

Harry, Hermione and Neville were all knocked backwards off their feet; Neville was thrown over the desk and disappeared from view; Hermione smashed into a bookcase and was promptly deluged in a cascade of heavy books; the back of Harry's head slammed into the stone wall behind him, tiny lights burst in front of his eyes and for a moment he was too dizzy and bewildered to react.

"WE'VE GOT HIM!" yelled the Death Eater nearest Harry. 'IN AN OFFICE OFF-!"

"Silencio!" cried Hermione and the man's voice was extinguished. He continued to mouth through the hole in his mask, but no sound came out. He was thrust aside by his fellow Death Eater.

"Petrific Totalus!" shouted Harry, as the second Death Eater raised his wand. His arms and legs snapped together and he fell forwards, face down on to the rug at Harry's feet, stiff as a board and unable to move.

"Well done, Ha-!"

But the Death Eater Hermione had just struck dumb made a sudden slashing movement with his wand; a streak of what looked like purple flame passed right across Hermione's chest. She gave a tiny "Oh!" As though of surprise and crumpled on to the floor, where she lay motionless.

"'HERMIONE!"

Harry fell to his knees beside her as Neville crawled rapidly towards her from under the desk, his wand held up in front of him. The Death Eater kicked out hard at Neville's head as he emerged - his foot broke Neville's wand in two and connected with his face. Neville gave a howl of pain and recoiled, clutching his mouth and nose. Harry twisted around, his own wand held high, and saw that the Death Eater had ripped off his mask and was pointing his wand directly at Harry, who recognized the long, pale, twisted face from the Daily Prophet: Antonin Dolohov, the wizard who had murdered the Prewetts.

Dolohov grinned. With his free hand, he pointed from the prophecy still clutched in Harry's hand, to himself, then at Hermione. Though he could no longer speak, his meaning could not have been clearer. Give me the prophecy, or you get the same as her . . .

"Like you won't kill us all anyway, the moment I hand it over!" said Harry.

A whine of panic inside his head was preventing him thinking properly: he had one hand on Hermione's shoulder, which was still warm, yet did not dare look at her properly. Don't let her be dead, don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead .

"Whaddever you do, Harry," said Neville fiercely from under the desk, lowering his hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down his mouth and chin, ", don'd gib it to him!"

Then there was a crash outside the door and Dolohov looked over his shoulder - the baby-headed Death Eater had appeared in the doorway, his head bawling, his great fists still flailing uncontrollably at everything around him. Harry seized his chance:

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

The spell hit Dolohov before he could block it and he toppled forwards across his comrade, both of them rigid as boards and unable to move an inch.

"Hermione," Harry said at once, shaking her as the baby-headed Death Eater blundered out of sight again. "Hermione, wake up."

"Whaddid he do to her?" said Neville, crawling out from under the desk to kneel at her other side, blood streaming from his rapidly swelling nose.

"I dunno . . . "

Neville groped for Hermione's wrist.

"Dat's a pulse, Harry, I'b sure id is."

Such a powerful wave of relief swept through Harry that for a moment he felt light-headed.

"She's alive?"

"Yeah, I dink so."

There was a pause in which Harry listened hard for the sound of more footsteps, but all he could hear were the whimpers and blunderings of the baby-headed Death Eater in the next room.

"Neville, we're not far from the exit." Harry whispered, "We're right next to that circular room . . . if we can just get you across it and find the right: door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift . . . then you could find someone . . . raise the alarm . . ."

"And whad are you going do do?" said Neville, mopping his bleeding nose with his sleeve and frowning at Harry.

"I've got to find the others," said Harry.

"Well, I'b going do find dem wid you," said Neville firmly.

"But Hermione-!"

"We'll dake her wid us," said Neville firmly. "I'll carry her - you're bedder at fighding dem dan I ab."

He stood up and seized one of Hermione's arms, glaring at Harry, who hesitated, then grabbed the other and helped hoist Hermione's limp form over Neville's shoulders.

"Wait," said Harry, snatching up Hermione's wand from the floor and shoving it into Neville's hand, "You'd better take this."

Neville kicked aside the broken fragments of his own wand as they walked slowly towards the door.

"My gran's going do kill be," said Neville thickly, blood spattering from his nose as he spoke, "dat was by dad's old wand."

Harry stuck his head out of the door and looked around cautiously. The baby-headed Death Eater was screaming and banging into things, toppling grandfather clocks and overturning desks, bawling and confused, while the glass-fronted cabinet that Harry now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter and repair itself on the wall behind them.

"He's never going to notice us," he whispered. "C'mon . . . keep close behind me . . ."

They crept out of the office and back towards the door into the black hallway, which now seemed completely deserted. They walked a few steps forwards, Neville tottering slightly due to Hermione's weight; the door of the Time Room swung shut behind them and the walls began to rotate once more. The recent blow on the back of Harry's head seemed to have unsteadied him; he narrowed his eyes, swaying slightly, until the walls stopped moving again. With a sinking heart, Harry saw that Hermione's fiery crosses had faded from the doors.

"So which way d'you reck-?"

But before they could make a decision as to which way to try, a door to their right sprang open and four people fell out of it.

"Ron!" croaked Harry, dashing towards them. "Ginny! Are you all-?"

"Harry," said Ron, giggling weakly, lurching forwards, seizing the front of Harry's robes and gazing at him with unfocused eyes, "There you are . . . ha ha ha . . . you look funny, Harry . . . you're all messed up . . ."

"What's wrong with her" Harry snapped. Juliunna was crawling on the floor, her eyes wide with fright.

"She'll be fine. One of them hit her with some sort of spell and now she can't talk." Ginny said. Juliunna jumped up and tried to communicate with them, but she was mute.

"… They want her. They want Juliunna alive and well, because Voldemort will have their heads if she's dead. I don't why, but they want her for some reason. Juliunna, were you trying to tell me that all along?" Harry asked, and Juliunna nodded.

He swore and looked away. "Well, let's focus on one thing at a time." Harry sighed.

Ron's face was very white and something dark was trickling from the corner of his mouth. Next moment his knees had given way, but he still clutched the front of Harry's robes, so that Harry was pulled into a kind of bow.

"Ginny?" Harry said fearfully. 'What happened?"

But Ginny shook her head and slid down the wall into a sitting position, panting and holding her ankle.

"I think her ankle's broken, I heard something crack," whispered Luna, who was bending over her and who alone seemed to be unhurt in all ways. "Four of them chased us into a dark room full of planets; it was a very odd place, some of the time we were just floating in the dark-!"

"Harry, we saw Uranus up close!" said Ron, still giggling feebly. "Get it, Harry? We saw Uranus - ha ha ha."

A bubble of blood grew at the corner of Ron's mouth and burst.

'"…anyway, one of them grabbed Ginny's foot, I used the Reducto Curse and blew up Pluto in his face, but . . ."

Luna gestured hopelessly at Ginny, who was breathing in a very shallow way, her eyes still closed.

"And what about Ron?" said Harry fearfully, as Ron continued to giggle, still hanging off the front of Harry's robes.

"I don't know what they hit him with," said Luna sadly, "but he's gone a bit funny, I could hardly get him along at all."

"Harry," said Ron, pulling Harry's ear down to his mouth and still giggling weakly, "You know who this girl is, Harry? She's Loony . . . Loony Lovegood . . . ha ha ha . . ."

"We've got to get out of here," said Harry firmly. "Luna, can you help Ginny?"

"Yes," said Luna, sticking her wand behind her ear for safekeeping, then putting an arm around Ginny's waist and pulling her up.

'"It's only my ankle, I can do it myself!" said Ginny impatiently, but next moment she had collapsed sideways and grabbed Luna for support. Harry pulled Ron's arm over his shoulder just as, so many months ago, he had pulled Dudley's. He looked around: they had a one in twelve chance of getting the exit right first time.

He heaved Ron towards a door; they were within a few feet of it when another door across the hall burst open and three Death Eaters sped in, led by Bellatrix Lestrange.

"There they are!" she shrieked.

Stunning Spells shot across the room: Harry smashed his way through the door ahead, flung Ron unceremoniously from him and ducked back to help Neville in with Hermione. Juliunna and Luna jumped inside, and they were all over the threshold just in time to slam the door against Bellatrix.

"Colloportus!" shouted Harry, and he heard three bodies slam into the door on the other side.

"It doesn't matter!" said a man's voice. "There are other ways in - **WE'VE GOT THEM, THEY'RE HERE!'**

Harry span around; they were back in the Brain Room and, sure enough, there were doors all around the walls. He could hear footsteps in the hall behind them as more Death Eaters came running to join the first.

"Luna, Neville, help me!"

The three of them tore around the room, sealing the doors as they went; Harry crashed into a table and rolled over the top of it in his haste to reach the next door: Juliunna looked at them hopelessly as she could no longer speak, and was still less experienced then a first year. Casting non verbal spells inside her head was more then her worth.

"Colloportus!"

There were footsteps running along behind the doors, every now and then another heavy body would launch itself against one, so it creaked and shuddered; Luna and Neville were bewitching the doors along the opposite wall - then, as Harry reached the very top of the room, he heard Luna cry:

"Collo- aaaaaaaaargh . . ."

He turned in time to see her flying through the air; five Death Eaters were surging into the room through the door she had not reached in time; Luna hit a desk, slid over its surface and on to the floor on the other side where she lay sprawled, as still as Hermione.

"Get Potter!" shrieked Bellatrix, and she ran at him; he dodged her and sprinted back up the room; he was safe as long as they thought they might hit the prophecy.

"Hey!" said Ron, who had staggered to his feet and was now tottering drunkenly towards Harry, giggling. "Hey, Harry, there are brains in here, ha ha ha, isn't that weird, Harry?"

"Ron, get out of the way, get down-!"

But Ron had already pointed his wand at the tank.

"Honest, Harry, they're brains - look - Accio brain!"

The scene seemed momentarily frozen. Harry, Juliunna Ginny and Neville and each of the Death Eaters turned in spite of themselves to watch the top of the tank as a brain burst from the green liquid like a leaping fish: for a moment it seemed suspended in midair, then it soared towards Ron, spinning as it came, and what looked like ribbons of moving images flew from it, unraveling like rolls of film.

"Ha ha ha, Harry, look at it-!" said Ron, watching it disgorge its gaudy innards, "Harry, come and touch it; bet it's weird-!"

"**RON, NO!"**

Harry did not know what would happen if Ron touched the tentacles of thought now flying behind the brain, but he was sure it would not be anything good. He darted forwards but Ron had already caught the brain in his outstretched hands.

The moment they made contact with his skin, the tentacles began wrapping themselves around Ron's arms like ropes.

"Harry, look what's happen- No - no - I don't like it - no, stop – stop-!"

But the thin ribbons were spinning around Ron's chest now; he tugged and tore at them as the brain was pulled tight against him like an octopus's body. Juliunna ran forward to help, trying to grab at the ribbons and tear them away.

"Diffindo!" Yelled Harry, trying to sever the feelers wrapping themselves tightly around Ron before his eyes, but they would not break. Ron fell over, still thrashing against his bonds.

"Harry, it'll suffocate him!" screamed Ginny, immobilized by her broken ankle on the floor - then a jet of red light flew from one of the Death Eater's wands and hit her squarely in the face. She keeled over sideways and lay there unconscious.

"**STUBEFY!"** shouted Neville, wheeling around and waving Hermione's wand at the oncoming Death Eaters, **"STUBEFY, STUBEFY!"**

But nothing happened.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

**Normal Pov**

One of the Death Eaters shot their own Stunning Spell at Neville; it missed him by inches. Harry and Neville were now the only two left fighting the five Death Eaters, two of whom sent off streams of silver light like arrows which missed but left craters in the wall behind them. Harry ran for it as Bellatrix Lestrange raced right at him: holding the prophecy high above his head, he sprinted back up the room; all he could think of doing was to draw the Death Eaters away from the others.

It seemed to have worked; they streaked after him, knocking chairs and tables flying but not daring to bewitch him in case they hurt the prophecy, and he dashed through the only door still open, the one through which the Death Eaters themselves had come; inwardly praying that Neville would stay with Ron and find some way of releasing him. He ran a few feet into the new room and felt the floor vanish.

He was falling down steep stone step after steep stone step, bouncing on every tier until at last, with a crash that knocked all the breath out of his body, he landed flat on his back in the sunken p t where the stone archway stood on its dais. The whole room was ringing with the Death Eater's laughter: he looked up and saw the five who had been in the Brain Room descending towards him, while as many more emerged through other doorways and began leaping from bench to bench towards him. Harry got to his feet though his legs were trembling so badly they barely supported him: the prophecy was still miraculously unbroken in his left hand, his wand clutched tightly in his right. He backed away, looking around, trying to keep all the Death Eaters within his sight. The back of his legs hit something solid: he had reached the dais where the archway stood. He climbed backwards onto it.

The Death Eaters all halted, gazing at him. Some were panting as hard as he was. One was bleeding badly; Dolohov, freed of the Body-Bind Curse, was leering, his wand pointing straight at Harry's face.

"Potter, your race is run." Crawled Lucius Malfoy, pulling off his mask, "Now hand me the prophecy like a good boy."

"Let - let the others go, and I'll give it to you!" said Harry desperately.

A few of the Death Eaters laughed.

"You are not in a position to bargain, Potter." said Lucius Malfoy, his pale face flushed with pleasure. "You see, there are ten of us and only one of you . . . or hasn't Dumbledore ever taught you how to count?"

"He's dot alone!" Shouted a voice from above them. "He's still god be!"

"And me!"

Harry's heart sank: Neville and Juliunna was scrambling down the stone benches towards them, Hermione's wand held fast in his trembling hand.

"Neville! Juliunna! Go back to Ron."

"STUBEFY!" Neville shouted again, pointing his wand at each Death Eater in turn. "STUBEFY! Stupefy-!"

One of the largest Death Eaters seized Neville from behind, pinioning his arms to his sides. He struggled and kicked; several of the Death Eaters laughed. Juliunna stared at the one closest to her.

"Run!" Harry told her. But her fists were bared like claws, waiting hopelessly.

"It's Longbottom, isn't it?" sneered Lucius Malfoy. "Well, your grandmother is used to losing family members to our cause . . . your death will not come as a great shock."

"Longbottom?" Repeated Bellatrix, and a truly evil smile lit her gaunt face. "Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy."

"I bet you have." Juliunna said aloud, and Bellatrix turned towards. "Ah, sweetheart. Our little guest of honor." Bellatrix said, and Juliunna walked up to the arch and stood beside Harry.

"After we're done with Potter, we'll get to you." Bellatrix smiled, and Harry turned to Juliunna. She couldn't speak, but the look of disgust on her face was great.

The sight of Bellatrix was too much for Neville. Neville fought so hard against his captor's encircling grip that the Death Eater shouted, "Someone Stun him!"

"No, no, no," Bellatrix said. She looked transported, alive with excitement as she glanced at Harry, then back at Neville. "No, let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks like his parents . . . unless Potter wants to give us the prophecy."

"DON'D GIB ID DO DEM!" roared Neville, who seemed beside himself, kicking and writhing as Bellatrix drew nearer to him and his captor, her wand raised. "DON'D GIB ID DO DEM, HARRY!"

Bellatrix raised her wand. "Crucio!"

Neville screamed, his legs drawn up to his chest so that the Death Eater holding him was momentarily holding him off the ground. The Death Eater dropped him and he fell to the floor, twitching and screaming in agony.

"That was just a taster!" said Bellatrix, raising her wand so that Neville's screams stopped and he lay sobbing at her feet. She turned and gazed up at Harry. "Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friend die the hard way!"

Juliunna looked at Bellatrix, so alive right then and there. She sneered at the tall and crazy witch.

Harry did not have to think; there was no choice. The prophecy was hot with the heat of his clutching hand as he held it out. Malfoy jumped forwards to take it.

Then, high above them, two more doors burst open and five more people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks and Kingsley. Juliunna threw her hands into the air with a smile, looking to Harry's relieved face.

Malfoy turned, and raised his wand, but Tonks had already sent a Stunning Spell right at him. Harry did not wait to see whether it had made contact, but grabbed Juliunna's arm. The both of them dived off the dais out of the way. The Death Eaters were completely distracted by the appearance of the members of the Order, who were now raining spells down upon them as they jumped from step to step towards the sunken floor. Through the darting bodies, the flashes of light, Harry could see Neville crawling along. He dodged another jet of red light and the two of them flung themselves flat on the ground to reach Neville.

"Are you OK?" He yelled, as another spell soared inches over their heads.

"Yes," said Neville, trying to pull himself up.

"And Ron?"

"I dink he's all right. He was still fighting de brain when I lefd."

The stone floor between them exploded as a spell hit it, leaving a crater right where Neville's hand had been only seconds before; both scrambled away from the spot, then a thick arm came out of nowhere, seized Harry around the neck and pulled him upright, so that his toes were barely touching the floor.

"Give it to me," growled a voice in his ear, "Give me the prophecy."

The man was pressing so tightly on Harry's windpipe that he could not breathe. Through watering eyes he saw Sirius dueling with a Death Eater some ten feet away; Kingsley was fighting two at once; Tonks, still halfway up the tiered seats, was firing spells down at Bellatrix. Nobody seemed to realize that Harry was dying. Juliunna reached out and kicked and hit the man, but with all the good that did, she might as well have been a stuffed animal. He turned his wand backwards towards the man's side, but had no breath to utter an incantation, and the man's free hand was groping towards the hand in which Harry was grasping the prophecy.

"AARGH!"

Neville had come lunging out of nowhere; unable to articulate a spell, he had jabbed Hermione's wand hard into the eyehole of the Death Eater's mask. The man relinquished Harry at once with a howl of pain. Harry whirled around to face him and gasped:

"STUPEFY!"

The Death Eater keeled over backwards and his mask slipped off: it was Macnair, Buckbeak's would-be killer, one of his eyes now swollen and bloodshot.

Thanks!' Harry said to Neville, pulling him and Juliunna aside as Sirius and his Death Eater lurched past, dueling so fiercely that their wands were blurs; then Harry's foot made contact with something round and hard and he slipped. For a moment he thought he had dropped the prophecy, but then he saw Moody's magical eye spinning away across the floor.

Its owner was lying on his side, bleeding from the head, and his attacker was now bearing down upon Harry and Neville: Dolohov, his long pale face twisted with glee.

"Tarantallegra!" He shouted, his wand pointing at Neville, whose legs went immediately into a kind of frenzied tap-dance, unbalancing him and causing him to fall to the floor again. He pushed Juliunna aside hard, and she backpedaled away behind Harry. "Now, Potter-!"

He made the same slashing movement with his wand that he had used on Hermione just as Harry yelled, "Protego!"

Harry felt something streak across his face like a blunt knife; the force of it knocked him sideways and he fell over Neville's jerking legs, but the Shield Charm had stopped the worst of the spell.

Dolohov raised his wand again. "Accio proph-!"

Sirius had hurtled out of nowhere, rammed Dolohov with his shoulder and sent him flying out of the way. The prophecy had again flown to the tips of Harry's fingers but he had managed to cling on to it. Now Sirius and Dolohov were dueling, their wands flashing like swords, sparks flying from their wand-tips. Harry looked behind him to see if Juliunna was okay; Her mouth was wide open as if she was screaming, trying to pull Neville to a stand.

Dolohov drew back his wand to make the same slashing movement he had used on Harry and Hermione. Springing up, Harry yelled, "Petrific Totalus!" Once again, Dolohov's arms and legs snapped together and he keeled over backwards, landing with a crash on his back.

"Nice one!" shouted Sirius, forcing Harry's head down as a pair of Stunning Spells flew towards them. "Now I want you to get out of-!"

They both ducked again; a jet of green light had narrowly missed Sirius. Across the room Harry saw Tonks fall from halfway up the stone steps, her limp form toppling from stone seat to stone seat and Bellatrix, triumphant, running back towards the fray.

"Harry, take the prophecy, grab these two and run!" Sirius yelled, dashing to meet Bellatrix. Harry did not see what happened next: Kingsley swayed across his field of vision, battling with the pockmarked and no longer masked Rookwood; another jet of green light flew over Harry's head as he launched himself towards Neville.

"Can you stand?" he bellowed in Neville's ear, as Neville's legs jerked and twitched uncontrollably. "Put your arm round my neck-!"

Neville did so. Harry heaved, Neville's legs were still lying in every direction, they would not support him, and then, out of nowhere, a man lunged at them: both fell backwards, Neville's legs waving wildly like an overturned beetle's, Harry with his left arm held up in the air to try to save the small glass ball from being smashed.

"The prophecy, give me the prophecy, Potter!" snarled Lucius Malfoy's voice in his ear, and Harry felt the tip of Malfoy's wand pressing hard between his ribs.

"No! Get off me . . . Neville catch it!"

Harry flung the prophecy across the floor, Neville span himself around on his back and scooped the ball to his chest. Malfoy pointed the wand instead at Neville, but Harry jabbed his own wand back over his shoulder and yelled, "Impedimenta!"

Malfoy was blasted off his back. As Harry scrambled up again he looked around and saw Malfoy smash into the dais on which Sirius and Bellatrix were now dueling. Malfoy aimed his wand at Harry and Neville again, but before he could draw breath to strike, Lupin had jumped between them.

"Harry, round up the others and GO!"

Harry and Juliunna seized Neville by the shoulder of his robes and lifted him bodily on to the first tier of stone steps; Neville's legs twitched and jerked and would not support his weight; Harry heaved again with all the strength he possessed and they climbed another step.

A spell hit the stone bench at Harry's heel; it crumbled away and he fell back to the step below. Neville sank to the ground, his legs still jerking and thrashing, and he thrust the prophecy into his pocket.

"Come on!" said Harry desperately, hauling at Neville's robes. "Just try and push with your legs."

He gave another stupendous heave and Neville's robes tore all along the left seam - the small spun-glass ball dropped from his pocket and, before either of them could catch it, one of Neville's floundering feet kicked it: it flew some ten feet to their right and smashed on the step beneath them. As the three of them stared at the place where it had broken, appalled at what had happened, a pearly-white figure with hugely magnified eyes rose into the air, unnoticed by any but them. Harry could see its mouth moving, but in all the crashes and screams and yells surrounding them, not one word of the prophecy could he hear. The figure stopped speaking and dissolved into nothingness.

"Harry, I'b sorry!" cried Neville, his face anguished as his legs continued to flounder. "Ib so sorry, Harry, I didn't bean do-!"

"It doesn't matter!" Harry shouted. "Just try and stand, let's get out of-!"

"Dubbledore!" said Neville, his sweaty face suddenly transported, staring over Harry's shoulder.

"What?"

"DUBBLEDORE!"

Harry and Juliunna turned to look where Neville was staring. Directly above them, framed in the doorway from the Brain Room, stood Albus Dumbledore, his wand aloft, his face white and furious. Harry felt a kind of electric charge surge through every particle of his body - they were saved.

Dumbledore sped down the steps past Neville and Harry, who had no more thoughts of leaving. Dumbledore was already at the foot of the steps when the Death Eaters nearest realized he was there and yelled to the others. One of the Death Eaters ran for it, scrabbling like a monkey up the stone steps opposite. Dumbledore's spell pulled him back as easily and effortlessly as though he had hooked him with an invisible line.

Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: he was laughing at her.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.

The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest.

The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.

Harry released Neville, though he was unaware of doing so. He was jumping down the steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore, too, turned towards the dais.

It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch.

Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfathers wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place.

Harry heard Bellatrix Lestranges triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing - Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second . . .

But Sirius did not reappear.

"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled. "SIRIUS!"

He had reached the floor, his breath coming in searing gasps. Sirius must be just behind the curtain, he, Harry, would pull him back out . . .

But as he reached the ground and sprinted towards the dais, Lupin grabbed Harry around the chest, holding him back.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry-!"

"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"

"It's too late, Harry."

"We can still reach him." Harry struggled hard and viciously, but Lupin was replaced by Juliunna.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry . . . nothing . . . he's gone." Lupin said as Juliunna wrapped her arms around his chest and shook her head slowly against his shoulder.

Harry was too weak to assure her.

…

"He hasn't gone!" Harry yelled.

He did not believe it; he would not believe it; still he fought Lupin with every bit of strength he had. Lupin did not understand; people hid behind that curtain; Harry had heard them whispering the first time he had entered the room. Sirius was hiding, simply lurking out of sight.

"**SIRIUS!"** He bellowed. **"SIRIUS!"**

"He can't come back, Harry." Said Lupin, his voice breaking as he and Juliunna struggled to contain Harry. "He can't come back, because he's d-!"

"**HE! IS! NOT! DEAD!"** Roared Harry. "SIRIUS!"

There was movement going on around them, pointless bustling, the flashes of more spells. To Harry it was meaningless noise, the deflected curses flying past them did not matter, nothing mattered except that Lupin should stop pretending that Sirius. Who was standing feet from them behind that old curtain. Was not going to emerge at any moment, shaking back his dark hair and eager to re-enter the battle.

Lupin and Juliunna dragged Harry away from the dais. Harry still staring at the archway, was angry at Sirius now for keeping him waiting-!"

But some part of him realized, even as he fought to break free from those two, that Sirius had never kept him waiting before . . . Sirius had risked everything, always, to see Harry to help him . . . if Sirius was not reappearing out of that archway when Harry was yelling for him as though his life depended on it, the only possible explanation was that he could not come back . . . that he really was…  
Dumbledore had most of the remaining Death haters grouped in the middle of the room, seemingly immobilized by invisible ropes; Mad-Eye Moody had crawled across the room to where Tonks lay, and was attempting to revive her; behind the dais there were still flashes of light, grunts and cries. Kingsley had run forward to continue Sirius's duel with Bellatrix.

"Harry?"

Neville had slid down the stone benches one by one to the place where Harry stood. Harry was no longer struggling against Juliunna, who maintained a precautionary grip on his arm nevertheless.

"Harry . . . I'b really sorry . . ." said Neville. His legs were still dancing uncontrollably. "Was dad man - was Sirius Black a-! A friend of yours?"

Harry nodded.

"Here," said Lupin quietly, and pointing his wand at Neville's legs he said, "Finite." The spell was lifted: Neville's legs fell back to the floor and remained still. Lupin's face was pale. "Let's-! Let's find the others. Where are they all, Neville?'

Lupin turned away from the archway as he spoke. It sounded as though every word was causing him pain.

"Dey're all back dere," said Neville. "A brain addacked Ron bud I dink he's all righd. And Herbione's unconscious, bud we cou'd feel a bulse -!"

There was a loud bang and a yell from behind the dais. Harry saw Kingsley hit the ground yelling in pain: Bellatrix Lestrange turned tail and ran as Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it; she was halfway up the steps now-!"

"Harry no!" Cried Lupin, but Harry had already ripped his arm from Lupin's slackened grip.

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" bellowed Harry.** "SHE KILLED HIM-!'I'LL KILL HER!'**

And he was off, scrambling up the one benches; people were shouting behind him but he did not care. The hem of Bellatrix's robes whipped out of sight ahead and they were back in the room where the brains were swimming . . .

She aimed a curse over her shoulder. The tank rose into the air and tipped. Harry was deluged in the foul-smelling potion within: the brains slipped and slid over him and began spinning their long colored tentacles, but he shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!" And they flew off him up into the air. Slipping and sliding, he ran on towards the door; he leapt over Luna, who was groaning on the floor, past Ginny, who said, "Harry, what." Past Ron, who giggled feebly, and Hermione, who was still unconscious. Juliunna, who had hesitated, ran after him fast, her hair whipping around her head.

Harry wrenched open the door into the circular black hall and saw Bellatrix disappearing through a door on the other side of the room; beyond her was the corridor leading back to the lifts.

He ran, but she had slammed the door behind her and the walls were already rotating. Once more, he was surrounded by streaks of blue light from the whirling candelabra.

"Where's the exit?" he shouted desperately, as the wall rumbled to a halt again. "Where's the way out?"

The room seemed to have been waiting for him to ask. The door right behind him flew open and the corridor towards the lifts stretched ahead of him, torch-lit and empty. He ran . . .

He could hear a lift clattering ahead; he sprinted up the passageway, swung around the corner and slammed his fist on to the button to call a second lift. It jangled and banged lower and lower; the grilles slid open and Harry dashed inside, now hammering the button marked 'Atrium'. The doors slid shut and he was rising . . .

He forced his way out of the lift before the grilles were fully open and looked around. Bellatrix was almost at the telephone lift at the other end of the hall, but she looked back as he sprinted towards her and aimed another spell at him. He dodged behind the Fountain of Magical Brethren: the spell zoomed past him and hit the wrought-gold gates at the other end of the Atrium so that they rang like bells. There were no more footsteps. She had stopped running. He crouched behind the statues, listening.

"Come out, come out, little Harry!" she called in her mock baby voice, which echoed off the polished wooden floors. "What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!"

"I am!" shouted Harry, and a score of ghostly Harry's seemed to chorus I am! I am! I am! all around the room.

"Aaaaaah . . . did you love him, little baby Potter?!"

Hatred rose in Harry such as he had never known before; he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed, "Crucio!"

Bellatrix screamed: the spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Neville had - she was already back on her feet, breathless, no longer laughing. Harry dodged behind the golden fountain again. Her counter-spell hit the head of the handsome wizard, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away, gouging long scratches into the wooden floor.

"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?" she yelled. She had abandoned her baby voice now. "You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain. To enjoy it. Righteous anger won't hurt me for long-! I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson."

Harry was edging around the fountain on the other side when she screamed, "Crucio!" And he was forced to duck down again as the centaur's arm, holding its bow, span off and landed with a crash on the floor a short distance from the golden wizard's head.

"Potter, you cannot win against me!" she cried.

He could hear her moving to the right, trying to get a clear shot of him. He backed around the statue away from her, crouching behind the centaur's legs, his head level with the house-elf's.

"I was and am the Dark Lord's most loyal servant. I learned the Dark Arts from him, and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete-!"

"Stupefy!" yelled Harry. He had edged right around to where the goblin stood beaming up at the now headless wizard and taken aim at her back as she peered around the fountain. She reacted so fast he barely had time to duck.

"Protego!"

The jet of red light, his own Stunning Spell, bounced back at him. Harry scrambled back behind the fountain and one of the goblin's ears went flying across the room.

"Potter, I'm going to give you one chance!" shouted Bellatrix. "Give me the prophecy - roll it out towards me now - and I may spare your life!"

"Well, you're going to have to kill me, because it's gone!" Harry roared and, as he shouted it, pain seared across his forehead; his scar was on fire again, and he felt a surge of fury that was quite unconnected with his own rage. "And he knows!" said Harry, with a mad laugh to match Bellatrix's own. "Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it's gone! He's not going to be happy with you, is he?"

"What? What do you mean?" she cried, and for the first time there was fear in her voice.

"The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville up the steps! What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?"

His scar seared and burned . . . the pain of it was making his eyes stream . . .

"LIAR!" She shrieked, but he could hear the terror behind the anger now.** "YOU'VE GOT IT, POTTER, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME! Accio prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"**

Harry laughed again because he knew it would incense her, the pain building in his head so badly he thought his skull might burst. He waved his empty hand from behind the one-eared goblin and withdrew it quickly as she sent another jet of green light flying at him. Juliunna ran inside the large room, her wand held up. "Harry!" She shouted, her voice creaking. He ignored the fact that the spell had worn off, and instead focused on Bellatrix.

"Nothing there!" he shouted. "Nothing to summon! It smashed and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that!"

"No!" she screamed. "It isn't true, you're lying! **MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED - DO NOT PUNISH ME-!**"

"Don't waste your breath!" yelled Harry, his eyes screwed up against the pain in his scar, now more terrible than ever. "He can't hear you from here!"

"Can't I, Potter?" said a high, cold voice. Harry opened his eyes. Juliunna appeared next to him, ducking behind the statue, and ducked her head in Harry's shoulder with a frightened whimper.

Tall, thin and black-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and gaunt, his scarlet, slit pupil eyes staring . . . Lord Voldemort had appeared in the middle of the hall, his wand pointing at Harry who stood frozen, quite unable to move.

"So, you smashed my prophecy?"' said Voldemort softly, staring at Harry with those pitiless red eyes. "No, Bella, he is not lying . . . I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind . . . months of preparation, months of effort . . . and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again . . ."

"Master, I am sorry, I knew not, I was fighting the Animagus Black!" sobbed Bellatrix, flinging herself down at Voldemort's feet as he paced slowly nearer. "Master, you should know-!"

"Be quiet, Bella," said Voldemort dangerously. "I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your sniveling apologies?"

"But Master - he is here - he is below-!"

Voldemort paid no attention. His eyes flicked over the small girl cowering into Harry's side, but paid her no mind.

"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter," He said quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long**. AVADA KEDAVRA**!"

"No!" Juliunna shouted into Harry's side.

Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist; his mind was blank, his wand pointing uselessly at the floor.

But the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from its plinth to land with a crash on the floor between Harry and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect Harry.

"What-!" Cried Voldemort, staring around. And then he breathed, "Dumbledore!"

Harry looked behind him, his heart pounding. Dumbledore was standing in front of the golden gates.

Voldemort raised his wand and another jet of green light streaked at Dumbledore, who turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak. Next second, he had reappeared behind Voldemort and waved his wand towards the remnants of the fountain. The other statues sprang to life. The statue of the witch ran at Bellatrix, who screamed and sent spells streaming uselessly off its chest, before it dived at her, pinning her to the floor. Meanwhile, the goblin and the house-elf scuttled towards the fireplaces set along the wall and the one-armed centaur galloped at Voldemort, who vanished and reappeared beside the pool. The headless statue thrust Harry and Juliunna backwards, away from the fight, as Dumbledore advanced on Voldemort and the golden centaur cantered around them both.

"It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom," said Dumbledore calmly. "The Aurors are on their way-!"

"By which time I shall be gone, and you will be dead!" spat Voldemort. He sent another killing curse at Dumbledore but missed, instead hitting the security guard's desk, which burst into flame.

"Harry, Harry I have to tell you why their after me." She breathed, taking her head off of Harry's shoulder. Harry turned his head away from the action. "What is it?"

"That's my dad, Harry!" She said, pointing over the statue's shoulder at Voldemort.

Dumbledore flicked his own wand: the force of the spell that emanated from it was such that Harry, though shielded by his golden guard, felt his hair stand on end as it passed and this time Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it. The spell, whatever it was, caused no visible damage to the shield, though a deep, gong-like note reverberated from it. An oddly chilling sound.

"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" called Voldemort, his scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield. "Above such brutality, are you?"

"We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, continuing to walk towards Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world, as though nothing had happened to interrupt his stroll up the hall. "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit."

" What?" Harry said to Juliunna. "But that can't be true."

"It is." She cried out. "

But how?!"

"Draco told me. That's what his parents were talking about in the tea shop!" She whispered feverishly to Harry.

"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" Snarled Voldemort, not paying attention to the two kids.

"You are quite wrong," said Dumbledore, still closing in upon Voldemort and speaking as lightly as though they were discussing the matter over drinks. Harry felt scared to see him walking along, undefended, shield less; he wanted to cry out a warning, but his headless guard kept shunting him backwards towards the wall, blocking his every attempt to gel out from behind it. "Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness-!"

Another jet of green light flew from behind the silver shield. This time it was the one-armed centaur, galloping in front of Dumbledore, that took the blast and shattered into a hundred pieces, but before the fragments had even hit the floor, Dumbledore had drawn back his wand and waved it as though brandishing a whip. A long thin flame flew from the tip; it wrapped itself around Voldemort, shield and all. For a moment, it seemed Dumbledore had won, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinquished its hold on Voldemort at once and turned, hissing furiously, to face Dumbledore.

Voldemort vanished; the snake reared from the floor, ready to strike-!

Bellatrix stopped struggling. "Master! Master! It is her! The girl!"

There was a burst of flame in midair above Dumbledore just as Voldemort reappeared, standing on the plinth in the middle of the pool where so recently the five statues had stood.

'Look out!' Harry yelled.

But even as he shouted, another jet of green light flew at Dumbledore from Voldemort's wand and the snake struck-!

Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide and swallowed the jet of green light whole: he burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled and flightless. At the same moment, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one long, fluid movement - the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a wisp of dark smoke; and the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass.

For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass - '

Then he was gone and the water fell with a crash back into its pool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor.

"MASTER!" screamed Bellatrix.

Sure it was over, sure Voldemort had decided to flee, Harry made to run out from behind his statue guard, but Dumbledore bellowed. "Stay where you are, children!"

For the first time, Dumbledore sounded frightened. Harry could not see why: the hall was quite empty but for themselves, the shivering Juliunna, the sobbing Bellatrix still trapped under the witch statue, and the baby phoenix Fawkes croaking feebly on the floor-!"

Then Harry's scar burst open and he knew he was dead: it was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance - '

He was gone from the hall, he was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know where his body ended and the creatures began: they were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no escape.

And when the creature spoke, it used Harry's mouth, so that in his agony he felt his jaw move . . .

"Kill me now, Dumbledore . . ."

Blinded and dying, every part of him screaming for release, Harry felt the creature use him again . . .

"If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy . . ."

Let the pain stop, thought Harry . . . let him kill us . . . end it, Dumbledore . . . death is nothing compared to this . . . And I'll see Sirius again . . .

"Harry!" Juliunna snapped, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. Abruptly, as if she was thrown back, her arms disappeared from his shoulders.

And as Harry's heart filled with emotion, the creatures coils loosened, the pain was gone; Harry was lying face down on the floor, his glasses gone, shivering as though he lay upon ice, not wood . . .

And there were voices echoing through the hall, more voices than there should have been . . . Harry opened his eyes, saw his glasses lying by the heel of the headless statue that had been guarding him, but which now lay flat on its back, cracked and immobile. He put them on and raised his head a little to find Dumbledore's crooked nose inches from his own.

"Are you all right, Harry?"

"Yes," said Harry, shaking so violently he could not hold his head up properly. "Yeah, I'm - where's Voldemort, where, who are all these?! What's-!"

The Atrium was full of people; the floor was reflecting the emerald green flames that had burst into fire in all the fireplaces along one wall; and streams of witches and wizards were emerging from them. As Dumbledore pulled him back to his feet, Harry saw the tiny gold statues of the house-elf and the goblin, leading a stunned-looking Cornelius Fudge forward.

"He was there!" shouted a scarlet-robed man with a ponytail, who was pointing at a pile of golden rubble on the other side of the hall, where Bellatrix had lain trapped only moments before. "I saw him, Mr. Fudge, I swear it was You-Know-Who, he grabbed a woman and Disapparated!" At that, Harry's neck snapped up, gritting his teeth. "Juliunna-!"

"No. He grabbed Bellatrix." He heard, and Juliunna grabbed his hand, pulling him to a stand. "Why didn't he go for you-!"

"He couldn't risk making it pass Dumbledore." She choked, he hugged her quickly.

"I had no idea. I should have listened to you when we were still at Hogwarts. You should have stayed-!"

"This needed to happen." Juliunna said, and Harry sighed. "Just trust me." She added.

"'I know, Williamson, I know, I saw him too!" Gibbered Fudge, who was wearing pajamas under his pinstriped cloak and was gasping as though he had just run miles. "Merlin's beard! Here-! Here! In the Ministry of Magic! Great heavens above! It doesn't seem possible, my word. How can this be?!"

Dumbledore, who had been addressing the crowd and Fudge, walked away from the pool to the place where the golden wizard's head lay on the floor. He pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Portus." The head glowed blue and trembled noisily against the wooden floor for a few seconds, then became still once more.

"Now see here, Dumbledore!" said Fudge, as Dumbledore picked up the head and walked back to Harry carrying it. "You haven't got authorization for that Port key! You can't do things like that right in front of the Minister for Magic, you-! You…"

His voice faltered as Dumbledore surveyed him magisterially over his half-moon spectacles.

"You will give the order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts," said Dumbledore. "You will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you . . ." Dumbledore pulled a watch with twelve hands from his pocket and surveyed it. "Half an hour of my time tonight, in which I think we shall be more than able to cover the important points of what has happened here. After that, I shall need to return to my school. If you need more help from me you are, of course, more than welcome to contact me at Hogwarts. Letters addressed to the Headmaster will find me."

Fudge goggled worse than ever; his mouth was open and his round face grew pinker under his rumpled grey hair.

"I-! You!"

Dumbledore turned his back on him.

"Take this Port key, children."

He held out the golden head of the statue and Harry placed his hand on it, past caring what he did next or where he went. Juliunna curiously touched it.

"I shall see you in half an hour," said Dumbledore quietly "One . . . two . . . three."

Harry and Juliunna felt the sensation of a hook being jerked behind their navels. The polished wooden floor was gone from beneath his feet; the Atrium, Fudge and Dumbledore had all disappeared and they were flying forward in a whirlwind of color and sound . . .


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

**Normal Pov**

The second their feet touched the floor and Juliunna took their hand off of the portkey, the head they were holding onto fell onto the floor.

"Well, Daughter of the Dark Lord." Harry said lifelessly.

"I don't want to be-!"

"I know that!" He said, and the two of them sauntered over to Dumbledore's desk.

"I'm sorry about Sirius." Juliunna said, and they both sat down. "You shouldn't be." He spoke, his voice light and dead. Harry took a deep breath, and then the two of them were sitting in silence.

They couldn't have been there for more then ten minutes when the door opened. "Professor," Harry started, turning around. He and Juliunna expected to see Dumbledore, but Professor Snape was standing there. He strode inside.

"Juliunna, let's go."

"What?" But Harry and Juliunna said. The two of them stood up, but Snape walked forward and wrapped a thin hand around Juliunna's upper arm.

"Urgent owl from the Headmaster. I need to transport you to a safe house now."

"What? But why? He's not going to strike again, so soon-!"

"Silence Potter!" Snape said, and started to pull Juliunna towards the door. "We have to act quickly. Once Bella gets the Dark Lord to believe her, he'll act fast. Let's go-!"

"Are you kidding?!" Both Harry and Juliunna said.

"You were told to wait here Potter! Stay!"

"What? But if he's coming here, would it make much sense for me to go to a safe house too-!"

"Stay down! The order knows what they are doing." Snape snarled at Harry. But he followed Snape and Juliunna out the door anyway.

"But aren't their protective spells keeping dark forces from penetration the school?" She asked as Snape pushed her to the stairs. He nodded grimly.

"Yes. But if You Know Who wants to get inside, I suppose that there isn't much we can do if he decides to go full fledged power on us. Until Dumbledore gets here to put more up, we're defenseless. Potter go back to the Headmaster's office, this instant!" Snape yelled, and Harry jumped backwards as he pulled out his wand.

"But I want to help."

"There is nothing you can do." Snape snarled at him, and when they reached the top of the vanishing staircase, Snape steered her to the right.

"Umbridge's office?" She asked. Snape nodded. "Yes, it's the only fireplace in the school not being trafficked." He said, and as they entered the office, Harry slipped into the room right after them. "Now, there's some floo powder in the-! Potter I will hex you into unconsciousness! I'll pass on the story that your fell and tripped on the stairs." Snape snarled, but Juliunna looked at the fireplace softly.

"Um… Floo Powder. Floo Powder. _Floo_-!"

"You've never traveled like that, have you?" Snape sighed.

"No."

"You really have no idea?"

"Well I do have the idea." Juliunna shrugged. She walked forward and grabbed the single cup of Floo Powder, which she compared to Peruvian Powder. She grabbed a fist full of powder and turned to Professor Snape. "Where do I go?"

"The Borrow."

"She's going to the Weasleys?" Harry asked.

"Yes." Snape said. "I believe the Headmaster will arrange for her to stay elsewhere soon. But she needs to stay somewhere unexpected. Here, give this to Molly, it's from Dumbledore. She'll understand." Snape said. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Juliunna, who pocketed easily. Juliunna turned to the fireplace. She stepped inside and turned around. "The Burrow!" She threw the powder down and was immediately engulfed in green flames. She spun around and then, a dining room was coming into view. When everything was still again, she stepped out and looked around at the kitchen that she had only seen in movies.

"Hello?!" She called out. Immediately, Molly Weasley ran into the kitchen still dressed in her night gown. "Hello? Who are you?" She asked, and Juliunna took the note out of her pocket. "Here you go." She said nicely. "From Professor Dumbledore Mrs. Weasley. There's been an incident." She said, and striding forward, Mr. Weasley took the note quickly. As she read it, Juliunna looked around the room, and spotted the clock. Ginny and Ron's clock hands were pointed toward School. Dumbledore must have gotten them back safely.

Mrs. Weasley finished reading, her hand clasped tightly against her chest. She dropped the letter on the table and turned to Juliunna, who was gazing around innocently. "You poor dear. Have you heard about anything?" She asked. I shook my head no.

"Okay. I want you to go straight upstairs and check out Ginny's room, you can sleep in her room. First door you see on the stair case, GW on the door, can't miss it. I'm going to bring you a nice dinner. But first, I have to go outside and do some protection spells. I'm so sorry this is happening dear." She added. She patted Juliunna warmly on the shoulder, making her smile. "Thank you Mrs. Weasley." Juliunna said, and they both strode off in the same direction. Mrs. Weasley ran outside, brandishing her wand.

Juliunna stopped at Ginny's door and looked up. There were more stairs, but halfway up them was a small walk space that led to a door with the letters GW written on the door.

**Juliunna Pov**

I opened the door and walked inside. It was a neat, room with a bunk bed against the wall. The walls were red, and there was a lot of posters up on the wall. Boy bands and Quidditch Games and decorations of average sparkly stuff. It was a typical teenage girls room. I walked forward and sat down on the bunk. I could see Mrs. Weasley outside, her arm outstretched into the sky. Little tuffs of silvery substance were shooting out of her wand and into the sky forming a large dome that was stretching for about a mile. The Weasley's yard and area was large, and I was amazed at how much square land they had! But surrounding the yard was miles and acres of a tall cornfield. I always wanted to go through one of those. It's like a huge maze!

I got up and opened the door, for there was movement in the hall. I was then looking down at Arthur Weasley. He turned to me. He was almost at the bottom of the stairs when he turned around, hearing the door.

"Oh. Hello." He said jollily. "Hello Mr. Weasley."

"And you are?" He asked. And I walked down the stairs to shake his hand.

"Juliunna. Juliunna Riddle." I said, he paled. "Um… Riddle?"

"Yes, yes you see, I'm here on orders."

"Does, does Molly know you're here?" He asked, walking backwards slowly. When he reached the floor, he started to backpedal.

"Yes. In fact, she agreed to the plan that we are going to put in place. Signed on the instant she finished reading." I said with a smirk. Oh, I know playing the pronoun game in this situation is cruel, but the fear on his face is priceless!

"Really? But Molly… Molly would never!" Arthur said, and his back hit the wall. His eyes were wide.

"Oh, but she did." I said, and started to walk down the stairs. I opened my mouth, in a wide smirked.

"Now, I only have one thing to tell you Mr. Weasley." I said, my hands etching towards my waist.

"And what is that?" He asked, his own hands etching towards his pockets.

"What's for dinner?" I asked with a smile. Arthur stopped his hand from entering his pocket. "Din… Dinner?"

"Yes. I'm afraid I'm really hungry." I said, and then walked pass him and into the kitchen. I heard him utter a small breath of relief.

"What happened to Molly?" He asked from the next room.

"Mr. Weasley, she's outside putting up protective charms." I yelled. He yelled back a thank you, and within seconds I could hear the sound of a screen door, and then a regular door opening. I sat down at the Kitchen table and propped my chin up on my hand. I looked around and noticed the note sitting on the table. I picked it up and raised it to eye level.

_Molly,_

_I am flooing Juliunna Marie Riddle to your house now. There was a massive incident at the Ministry and I need you to take care of her for a short while. I will be here in an hour, time, to discuss the details. Your children are safe, but heed my waning Molly. The girl in your custody is Voldemort's daughter. He will know that she is alive and at close hand. Whether or not he will attack Hogwarts to find her, is half and half a chance. Put protection spells around your house. If there is the slightest chance that they brainstorm and try to check a well known Order of the Phoenix member's house, it will not be pretty. Keep her inside._

_I promise that explanations are in order when I arrive. Stay safe and hoping you are well,_

_Dumbledore._

In a few minutes, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came inside. They were both tucking their wands back into their pockets. "Oh, have you checked out Ginny's room? Is it alright?" Mrs. Weasley asked, and walked to the refrigerator. She started pulling out toast and packages of food.

"Yes, thank you." I smiled. She took out her wand again and Arthur sat down next to me. "Is everyone okay with spaghetti for dinner?"

"Yes Mrs. Weasley." I smiled, standing up.

"Of course Molly." Arthur said.

"Alright. Juliunna, I want you to go upstairs and wash up for dinner. Give me ten minutes to make dinner, okay?" She asked. I nodded. "Yes Mrs. Weasley."

"Now I don't have any of your clothes, but your welcome to any of the boys clothes. I'm sorry to say that Ginny brought all of hers to school with her. I know the boys dressers are full. Is that okay?"

"Of course, Mrs. Weasley." I smiled with a slight strain. "I'll just go borrow something of Ron's. I'm sure he won't mind." I said, shaking my hand at her. She smiled at me as I walked around the corner. As I took the stairs two at a time, I couldn't help but smile. She was just so motherly! When I reached the top of the staircase, passed Ginny's room, and entered the second floor, I opened the first door on the left. It was empty and stripped down. "This must be Percy's." I said. I opened the next door and saw that there were two twin beds. "Fred and George." There were cauldrons littering the floor and brightly colored candies wrapped in clear wrappings. "Ooh." I said aloud. I was about to grab a candy on the floor, when I retreated my hand as if I was burned.

"Those aren't candies." I backed away and shut the door. I wondered if it what I was about to grab was a nosebleed nougat, or Fever Fudges. Or whatever made Dudley Dursleys tongue grow six feet in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I opened the last door on the left, and smiled.

"Yep. Here are the Quidditch Posters covering every inch of his wall, and the sloping ceiling. Here's the comics too." I said with a shrug. I walked over to Ron's dresser and pulled out a large grey shirt. "Hmm." I tossed it back inside. "Blue." I smiled. There was an overlarge blue shirt. I really hope I get more clothes soon. It's going to be really awkward if I have to keep borrowing Ron's clothes. I made sure to get dressed as quick as I could, and, to my embarrassment, wondered if I was out of luck for bottoms. But to my surprise, Ron had a whole box of shorts with the price tag still on. They were a gift from his Auntie Muriel, judging by the sign on this box. A few of them were swim trunks, and I realized at once why Ron wouldn't wear them. Not only did they look as if they were made for a small boy, their decorations were for boys, not teenagers. The shorts I were wearing went down to my knees, and had pictures of small fire trucks on them.

I walked down the stairs when I was finished, and was glad that Mrs. Weasley had magic to help her. There were four plates of steaming spaghetti and meatballs on the table. Mrs. Weasley was pocketing her wand when I entered.

"Oh, sweetie, right next to Arthur. I see you've found Muriel's gift." Mrs. Weasley smiled. I nodded and sat down next to Arthur. "Why are there-!" I was going to ask why there were four plates, but then, the fireplace shone brightly. Professor Dumbledore stepped out, brushed off his shoulders gravely, and then walked forward to exchange pleasantries with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "Molly, Arthur, I'm afraid I can't stay for long. I've got an angry Mr. Potter back at my office. I'm afraid that Sirius has left us, forever." Dumbledore said, and Molly gripped her chest tightly. "What?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so." Dumbledore said. Arthur pulled out a chair for him, and then everyone was seated. I lifted up my fork and skewered a small meatball. I plopped it into my mouth.

"Yes, Lord Voldemort used the mind connection that he and Harry shared to lure him, and a few other children to the Department of Ministries. Including your youngest son and daughter, and the young lady enjoying a plate a spaghetti right here." Dumbledore said, casting a smile my way.

"Are they alright?!" Molly asked.

"Yes. Madame Pomfrey is tending to them all now. You have no need to worry about them. Only minor injuries."

"I don't understand. What happened when, when _You Know Who_ lured them to the Department of Ministries?" Arthur asked. "He didn't get…_It_. Did it?" Arthur asked, trying to be discreet we me standing right here.

"You mean the Prophecy?" I smiled, and Arthur winced.

"Lord Voldemort did not get it. His team of Death Eaters pursued the children, and managed to escape to a select room. The Order and I managed to capture all but one Death Eater, Bellatrix Lestrange. She murdered Sirius, and sent Nymphadora into a state that sent her to St. Mungo's. She will be fine, eventually. I had to fight off Lord Voldemort, but he fled with Bellatrix. Now, she wasn't able to communicate that his daughter was less then ten feet from him. But I'm sure she'll get the point across. Juliunna has no official home or family to return to during the summer-!"

"Well, she's saying with us of course!" Mrs. Weasley said, smiling.

"Molly, I couldn't do that."

"What? We let Harry stay here during the summer. What's the difference?"

"I'm afraid that Voldemort finds her more useful then Harry. It won't take long for him to start searching-!"

"Who's going to take care of her?" Mrs. Weasley said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Molly, if he comes here on a whim, looking for her, what about your children?"

"We'll go off the map. More Protection charms. Besides, we have floo powder if we need to make a quick escape. And there's always side along Apparation. It doesn't matter." Molly said. Dumbledore nodded.

"Alright then. It's going to be alright, now, I believe Mrs. Riddle needs to be aware of some rules and safety concerns." Dumbledore said, and I quickly swallowed the forkful of spaghetti.

"Yes?"

"Owling Mr. Malfoy is out of the question. You'll just have to cope with that. Owling any of your Slytherin friends, including Mr. Malfoy, is dangerous. I believe that Lord Voldemort is in contact with his family."

"Fine." I shrugged, popping another meatball in my mouth.

"You are not to leave the house. If you must, stay close and inside the protective barriers. You are to, under no reason except to flee danger, to exit the protective borealis that I will put up. I believe that a Fidelus charm is in order. Molly, Arthur, will you both be secret keepers?" Dumbledore asked, and I scowled. He was going to lock me up, just like Sirius! It didn't really work out for him, after all. And I bet it won't go well for me.

"Of course." Both Molly and Arthur said.

"I suspect that you both should act as if nothing has changed. No one except for the Order should know that she is here. And your children of course." Dumbledore smiled at Molly and Arthur. I continued to spoon feed myself warm spaghetti, listening to them talk.

"And the children, should they no owl anyone else too?" Arthur asked.

"I believe that they will be okay, but I think you should make sure your children know that when its time to send an owl out, you should be discreet in mentioning Mrs. Riddle. Or any subject, really. Mrs. Riddle, do you think that Mr. Malfoy would have any reason to believe that you would go to the Weasleys? And if he did, would he tell Voldemort?" Albus asked me, adjusting the moon spectacles on his face.

"Yes. Well no. When Ron heard that I was going to the Malfoy's, he invited me to spend the summer here, instead. But I declined. That was weeks ago, and he's probably forgot about the whole thing., and Draco told me to stay at Hogwarts anyway. That was the original plan, of course. And I very much doubt that Draco would tell our dear friend Voldy, my whereabouts." I said with a shrug. Albus nodded, listening to my story.

"Now, I suppose that by now, Draco Malfoy has told you all you need to know about your parentage?"

"Yep."

"Well, Miss Riddle, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, I have to attend to Mr. Potter. And I daresay," Dumbledore looked to me, raising a fluffy eyebrow. "We will be meeting again. Hopefully, not on different sides of the war. I do hope what I see in your eyes, isn't what I saw in Tom Riddle's eyes when he was your age." He smiled. He grabbed his plate after Mrs. Weasley made him, and he flooed back to Hogwarts. I was gripping my fork tight, my wrist shaking. Mrs. Weasley sat down, and looked to me with soft eyes. "Do unclench your fork sweetie, that's the good kind. And if you need more food, just ask."

…

I slept in Ginny's bed, a pretty comfortable one with springs in the mattress. I spent the day cleaning her room. It was very much the opposite of neat. I couldn't see the floor. Toys, comic books, dresses that I refused to wear no matter what Mrs. Weasley said, and more were scattered along the floor. I cleaned it all without magic, and when I awoke the next day, I suspected that Ginny would be very surprised to see that her room was no longer comparable to a pigsty. When I woke up the next morning, I had one thing determined.

I was going to clean the whole second floor before Ron and Ginny get home tomorrow morning.


	10. Chapter 10

**(Ha. I think I'm going to do two or three extra chapters before I post the capturing scene. I've already got the chapter made! I'm so excited.)**

Chapter 10:

**Normal Pov**

Mrs. Weasley had come upstairs with a tray of food to Ginny's room for Juliunna, only to discover that it was not only clean, but Juliunna wasn't there. "Oh, she must be in the bathroom." Mrs. Weasley thought to herself, and knocked on the bathroom door when she reached the second floor. It opened at her touch. And was void of any life force. Biting her lip now, she continued to open every door and peer inside.

Mr. Weasley, who had been currently sipping down a cup of french vanilla coffee, scolding hot, jumped and spilt it all over his clothes when Molly let out a heartbroken scream.

"What's wrong?!" He called out, pulling out his wand and hurrying to the stairs. **"Arthur! Arthur! She's not here!"**

"What?!" He met her at the top of the stairs. Molly had dropped the tray and was trembling. "I looked in all the rooms! She's gone! Arthur. What if they got through? What if You Know Who was here and we didn't even know it? She's not here!?"

"Alright. Molly, go check the attic. I'll look in these rooms." Arthur assured her, and the both of them were white. Arthur ran into Percy's room and looked in his closet, and Molly, who had just came down from the attic, trembling still, walked inside Fred and George's room. To her surprise, there was the sound of a music box playing in the closet. She found herself getting drowsy and sleepy. She spotted Juliunna's foot laying out of the closet door, and stood back so that she couldn't hear the music.

"Arthur she's here. The boys have this music box that makes people fall asleep. What spell should I use?" Molly asked. Arthur walked out of Ron's room and drew his wand. "Silencio, how about that?" He asked.

"But I have to point my wand at the object, but for that, I'd have to get into the closet, or near it. But I'd fall asleep before I could utter the spell."

"How about this." Mr. Weasley said. He pointed his wand to Juliunna and with a small burst of light, she woke up. "What was that one?" Molly asked. Juliunna pushed herself up, and uttered a word. Upon seeing that she couldn't hear herself, she ran to the door.

"She can't hear anything. Hmm, apparently this thing puts anyone who listens into a deep sleep, and when the music stops, they wake up." He said. "I hope that's not illegal." He said, making Molly put her hands on her hips at the thought of it.

Juliunna patted her ears hurriedly, a frightened look on her face. She began to scream loudly, as if she was deaf. **"I can't hear! I can't hear! What happened?!"**

"It's alright." Arthur said, holding out his hands in a comforting motion. He reached behind Juliunna and closed the door, and the sound of the music box was wiped out completely. He pointed his wand at Juliunna's terrified face, and there was another burst of light. Juliunna gripped her throat thankfully, and then sounds flowed through her ear. She could hear the morning birds chirping outside. The ghoul upstairs dropped a pipe and there was a loud creaking and clanking sound upstairs.

"You might want to stay out of their room for a while sweetie. Why, when I see those boys…" Mrs. Weasley drifted off, too angry to continue speaking. Juliunna smiled and slipped pass the two. Arthur was trying to edge off in the opposite direction, not wanting to be the direction of Mrs. Weasley's anger. Juliunna slipped inside her room after muttering a rushed thank you, and laid back down on Ginny's bed. Curled up, and alone.

**The Next Day, Afternoon**

Juliunna was standing at the door with Mr. Weasley, smiling brightly. Ron walked forward and embraced her, and they hugged like siblings. "Was Hogwarts attacked?" She asked. Ron shook his head no.

"Harry told us about what happened." He said in a low murmur, leading her away from the careful ears of his parents and Ginny. "Aren't you like, terrified?"

"Nope." Juliunna said, shrugging. Ron raised an eyebrow at her. Mrs. Weasley was now telling Ginny about Juliunna's new living arrangements.

"But its bleeding You Know Who we're talking about!" He hissed at her, both admiration and speculation brewing in his blue eyes. "Aren't you a little bit scared?"

"Not really. If he gets me, he gets me. I mean," She started, but Mrs. Weasley had just starting walking towards the two of them, a smiling Ginny in tow. Ron pinched her arm hard, a signal to stop talking, and they both turned to Mrs. Weasley.

"And what are you two talking about?" Mrs. Weasley said, and Ron smirked. "Nothing Mom."

"Well in that case Ron, I want you to go out and gather the eggs."

"You guys have a chicken coop?!" Juliunnna smiled._ I remembered that Draco had told me that if I went to live with the Weasleys, I might just get to see their chicken coop. Sure, he was joking at the time, well… Insulting actually._

"Yes." Mrs. Weasley said. "Ginny dear, why don't you take Juliunna upstairs and make friends with her." Mrs. Weasley said, but Juliunna smiled widely.

"But I want to see the chickens!"

"But its hard work dear. Work." She said, putting emphasis on the word work. " Wouldn't you rather go upstairs and play with Ginerva?" Molly smiled at her, and Juliunna got the distinctive feeling that Mrs. Weasley didn't want her alone with Ron, or at a better thought, outside.

"Well if Ginny wants to come with…" Juliunna started, raising an eyebrow over Mrs. Weasley's shoulders, which Ginny nodded quickly. "Of course."

But Mrs. Weasley's smile went grim.

"Sweetheart, I don't think you should be outside." Mrs. Weasley said, and Ron glanced at Juliunna, and back out the door.

"Mrs. Weasley," Juliunna groaned. "The chicken coop, including the whole yard, all the way up to a perimeter that almost stretches to the cornfield, is where the protective boundaries lay. I'll be completely unseen and safe. There are corn stalks that go above my head. And the corn maze go on for miles. No one can see or hear me from the village. And the Fidelus charm makes me and the burrow completely unplotable and completely invisible." Juliunna said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, she's got a point, mom." Ron said, shrugging softly. Molly pressed her lips together, looking to Arthur for support. He shrugged and sank low into the couch. "Oh, I guess I have no reason to keep you in here."

"Remember what happened to Sirius? What keeping him locked up did to him?" Ron said, crossing his arm tighter. Molly's face went white. "You know what, fine. Arthur, just watch them from the door while I go make lunch." She said. But as the three of them went out the door, before Arthur could stand, Molly quickly stood in the door, as if no one could do this job better then she could.

Juliunna, Ron, and Ginny walked down to the chicken coop, muttering to themselves quietly. "Sorry about that." Ginny said with a small shrug. "She's gotten really clingy with you."

"She's got her heart in the right place." Juliunna said with a shrug. Ron, Ginny, and Juliunna sat down, protectively obscured by Mrs. Weasley's eyes from the walls on either side of them.

"So what were you saying? About You Know Who?" Ron whispered, and Ginny hissed as she realized what Ron was doing. "Mom made us promise-!"

"She doesn't have to know!" Ron hissed, but now he was rubbing his elbow with a frown on his face.

"What did she make you guys promise?" Juliunna asked.

"It's nothing really. Just not to mention You Know Who to you. But what we really wanted to know, was if you knew why You Know Who is after you." Ginny said, and Juliunna saw her raise a finger to her lips in secrecy.

"We _promised _Ginny." Ron moaned sarcastically, smirking at Ginny. "No, you promised. I had my fingers crossed behind my back. So anyway Juliunna, solve this mystery."

"But you said Harry told you." Juliunna said with a shrug, directing it at Ron. "He told me you were coming here because the Dark Lord is after you. He wouldn't tell me why, he said it was your business." Ron said with a small shrug.

"Well, in retrospect, its more personal. It turns out that after a long and substantial-!"

"Eh?" Ron said. "Substantial…" Ginny smacked Ron's shoulder hard. "Continue Juliunna."

"I'm the… Daughter of the Dark Lord." I said, continuing throughout their loud gasps of shock. "I'm not sure if my last name is Riddle. After all he shed the name Tom Riddle when he became the Dark Lord, and started calling himself Voldemort."

'Don't say the name!" Ginny hissed loudly. Ron turned to me, his eyebrows stretching to the top of his head.

"Sorry, I forgot." I said with a shrug. "Are you seriously not afraid?" Ron asked.

"I'm not afraid." I repeated. "Though granted, I probably will be when the time comes." I said with a shrug. "But hey, why sweat the small stuff. Come on Ginny, let's go make friends." I said, and the both of us got up and laughed. We started to walk back to the house, but Ron hissed. "Hey! I got to do this all by myself?"

We both looked up and along the chicken coop. There were eighteen nests up on shelves. Each of them had approximately three eggs each, and were guarded by big chickens with huge claws.

"Yes." Ginny said, and she grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the house. "Have you had the tour yet? We're going to have so much fun. We can break into the broom shed, and we can play Quidditch. Mione never wants to play Quidditch with me."

_Neither do I._ Juliunna thought to herself, but out of sheer respect, she allowed Ginny to drag her into the house. She was never a physical being. She preferred books and knowledge to games and 'fun'.

"I… I'm not allowed outside." Juliunna said feebly. Ginny chuckled when they passed Mrs. Weasley, who was narrowing her eyes at Ginny. "What are you two girls planning? Do you want her to be captured?"

"Of course not!" Ginny snapped, and turned to Juliunna. "But you said it yourself, as long as you stay within the boundaries, your fine." Ginny said. Juliunna scowled greatly when Ginny turned around and continued to walk into the kitchen. She let go of Juliunna's hand and sat down. Mrs. Weasley came bustling into the room. "Girls, I don't think that it would be wise to go outside. Dumbledore said-!"

"Dumbledore isn't here." Juliunna said, crossing her arms. Ginny smirked. "She's right mum. Can't we play for an hour or so?" Ginny frowned. When Juliunna was one hundred percent sure Ginny couldn't see her, she shook her head furiously at Mrs. Weasley, telling her to deny Ginny.

"Oh." Molly said, crossing her arms. "Ginny no. Maybe some other time, but not today. Let's try and get through a few weeks with a quiet environment, and then we'll see about it, okay?" Mrs. Weasley asked, and Juliunna breathed soundlessly in relief. Ginny frowned, but didn't say much more about it.

"Oh, mommy I just remembered. How are we going to visit Fred and George with Juliunna here?" Ginny asked. Mrs. Weasley froze. Evidently, she had forgotten just as Ginny had.

"No worries. I'll ask Professor Snape to brew us up a Polyjuice potion. I don't want to leave you here alone dear, it's really no fair to you." She said with a small smile.

…

** One Day Later (Kitchen)**

"So let me get this straight_, Professor_. Your going to sit here and tell me that you had a supply of Polyjuice potion at your finger tips?" I said with an annoyed eye roll. Professor Snape was sitting with me at the Weasley's table. Professor Snape's fingers were jetting the tall glass of Polyjuice potion, waiting for me to take it.

"Yes." He murmured, and his lips twitched at the corner. He seemed agitated with me, greatly.

"What do you do, use it to sneak into woman's shower rooms-!" His reached forward, about to wrap his hands around my throat. There was a vein pulsing in his forehead. He stopped, his fingernails brushing my soft skin, and he dropped his hand with a frown.

"No I don't. I'll have you know that I have a supply made for the order." He snarled at me.

"Oh yes, of course." I drawled out sarcastically. He snarled angrily.

"I'll have you know, Miss Riddle, that I despise you. And if you keep acting like a Neanderthal, I might just slip a little extra something into your potion the next time this happens." He snarled. He picked up the cup and handed it to me. He must have seen the brief uneasiness on my face, because he smirked.

"Go obscure a hair, then come back when you have completely your transformation." He snarled. I stood up and walked into the room. Ginny was sitting on the couch, along with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Ron.

"Hair please." I asked Ginny. Without questioning me, she pulled out a few strands of hair from the top of her hair. She dropped it inside the cup and instantly, it started to sizzle. "Whoa." I smirked. Mrs. Weasley raised an eyebrow.

"What? But wouldn't it raise questions if there were two Ginny's?"

"Who cares? We're twinsies! Lost at birth!" I squealed. Ginny's potion looked delicious. It turned pink and it looked like a strawberry smoothie. I lifted it up and started to pour it down my throat. It did taste like strawberries.

I dropped the glass halfway through. "Ah." I arched. I bent over at the waist. I was starting to transform. My hair grew longer, my feet went smaller. Lifting my hand, I saw my skin go lighter. The hair on either side of me was turning a dark, flaming red. I leaned up, sighing.

"How do I look?" I asked. Nothing changed about my voice. Ron spoke up first. "You could be identical twins. But when we go to their shop, people are going to notice that there are two Ginnys." Ron said. Ginny smirked.

"She's my cousin Aurora from America. Ron was planning to use Polyjuice potion to sneak into the Girls Locker Room as me in one of the Quidditch Clubs, and she accidently drank it, thinking it was a strawberry smoothie." Ginny said, and Juliunna smirked, impressed at how fast she was able to come up with the plan. Ron scowled at his part in the plan, but didn't say anything.

"Well," Mrs. Weasley started, trying to think of a flaw in the plan.

"It's foolproof mum. And she's got more if it starts to wear off." Ginny said with a shrug. Juliunna smiled widely. With a sign, Mrs. Weasley waved her wand, and the glass Juliunna had dropped and its contents, were gone.

"Fine. But let's hurry. We have an hour." She said. Juliunna walked back into the kitchen as the Mrs. Weasley started to look for her purse.

"Hello Snape a doodle." Juliunna smiled, sitting down at the table. "You," He started, but rolled his eyes. "You know what, in exactly one hour I want you to walk down Knockturn Alley." He smirked at her. "Just wait for the potion to wear off, and then-! Try Borgin and Burkes. You might just meet someone interesting in there." Snape said, but Juliunna chuckled.

"Yeah, right." She smirked. Mrs. Weasley entered. "Are you ready Juliunna… I mean Aurora." She started, and Juliunna held two thumbs up, a smile curling at the lips that weren't hers.

**…**

They all entered the house again, Mrs. Weasley in bad spirits, and the kids hopping up and down as if they were hacked up on sugar. Juliunna was dancing around, trying to escape Ron, who was throwing snapping pellets at her feet. They were small pebble sized things that blew into sparks when they hit the floor. She had to stomp repeatedly at the end of the witch robes she was wearing, for they had just caught fire when the sparks ignited her robes.

"Ron!" She snapped at him, and she and Ginny starting setting Dragon Bomb firecrackers off at him. It was a peaceful moment, watching Ron being chased by a flying firecracker which seemed intent on smashing into him.

"Mom!" He cried out, and shut himself into a closet. The dragon styled firework crashed into the closet door and disappeared instantly with a lazy flick of Mr. Weasley's wand.

"I can't believe you did that." Mrs. Weasley said, clutching her fingers at her sides worriedly. She was looking at Juliunna, an angry snarl on her face. Juliunna and Ginny sat down immediately, looking identical. Mrs. Weasley had only allowed the family to dawdle for a half hour or so.

"I'm sorry. I don't think he really had the chance to know it was really me." Juliunna said quietly.

At Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, **(A/N: I think I got that right)** She had exited the shop rather abruptly and ran into Draco Malfoy. She said hi, Draco called her a blood traitor and told her to go on back in the store, thinking she was Ginny Weasley, and she gave him a hug. Draco, wrapped up in shock, disgust, and surprise, was then told of by Mrs. Weasley and continued to walk away.

"You were told not to talk to him!"

"If Dumbledore told you not to talk to Mr. Weasley and sent you to live miles away, would you obey his orders?!" I said, throwing my hands up in the air.

"He is my husband!" Mrs. Weasley said. "The Malfoy boy is just some petty crush you have!"  
"Yeah right! I had more love from Draco in the last two weeks then you did from Arthur in the last two years!" Juliunna snarled. Mrs. Weasley gasped.

"Ginerva Weasley you get up to your room right now!"

"I'm Juliunna!" She snapped.

"Juliunna get up to your room right now and don't come out for nothing! I will bring you dinner!" She snarled. Juliunna growled and stomped up the stairs, leaving Ginny quietly giggling on the couch. Ron peeked out of the closet door. "What's for dinner?" He smiled. Ginny picked up the nearby couch cushion and threw it at Ron, who hit the ground hard.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 14:

**Normal Pov**

They had been flying for hours. Over mountains and rivers and lakes and cities and towns. Lower and lower the dragon flew, in great spiraling circles, honing in, it seemed, upon one of the smaller lakes.

"I say we jump when it gets low enough!" Harry called back to the others. "Straight into the water before it realizes we're here!"

They agreed, Hermione a little faintly, and now Harry could see the dragon's wide yellow underbelly rippling in the surface of the water.

"NOW!"

He slithered over the side of the dragon and plummeted feet first toward the surface of the lake; the drop was greater than he had estimated and he hit the water hard, plunging like a stone into a freezing, green, reed-filled world. He kicked toward the surface and emerged, panting, to see enormous ripples emanating in circles from the places where Ron and Hermione had fallen. The dragon did not seem to have noticed anything; it was already fifty feet away, swooping low over the lake to scoop up water in its scarred snout. As Ron and Hermione emerged, spluttering and gasping, from the depths of the lake, the dragon flew on, its wings beating hard, and landed at last on a distant bank.

Harry, Ron and Hermione struck out for the opposite shore. The lake did not seem to be deep. Soon it was more a question of fighting their way through reeds and mud than swimming, and at last they flopped, sodden, panting, and exhausted, onto slippery grass.

Hermione collapsed, coughing and shuddering. Though Harry could have happily lain down and slept, he staggered to his feet, drew out his wand, and started casting the usual protective spells around them. It had been three weeks since Tyler and Juliunna had left. They had just robbed the Lestranges vault and succeeded in getting their horcrux. Harry opened his mouth to cast the first protective spell but then there was a loud yell.

"wait!" Wait a minute!" He heard. Everyone looked up. "Bella!" Harry shouted out. He ran forward at the small brunette, running across the land. "Potter what's up?!" Bella chortled, jumping into his arms.

"We're fine. We just got another horcrux! Bella, Bella how'd you find us? Where did you go? Did you hear about Juliunna?"

"Yes, come down guys. I'm going to tell you guys everything. Let's all discuss it together. Calm yourself Potter, and put me down." Bella said. "Oops." Harry said. Harry put her down and she and him ran back Hermione and Ron. "Guys, your going to love this. Mungos took the hex off. And your going to be happy to know that Juliunna, Tyler, and Tyler jr. are alright!" Bella said with a squeal. Ron frowned.

"Um whose… Who's Tyler Jr.-!'

"She was pregnant?!" Hermione squealed happily. Bella nodded. "Yeah. She's three months along. She and Tyler are so excited." Bella said, pulling out a tiny piece of paper out of her pocket. She handed it to Harry, whom was frowning.

"Mate, are you jealous?" Ron chuckled. Harry looked down to the picture. Her stomach was flat and healthy. But there was the tiniest bump laying underneath her diaphragm. "No. Nah… I was just thinking of how… well Juliunna and I had relations around the same time she became pregnant. And I didn't use protection-!"

"Shit." Bella said, sitting back. "That's got to suck." She added. Harry took a deep breath. "Alright. We can always worry about that later…"

"Hey, just curious. Are you hoping the baby's yours? Like a tiny Harry? Baby Potter?" Bella asked him.

"Baby Potter," Harry smiled tilting his head to the side. "Wait no! No." Harry lied, not able to fight off the smile.

"Alright dude, let's just hurry up and get this horcrux and stuff over with. I'm supposed to pop in and check on you guys, make sure both know what your doing, and help you with what your doing. Then I've got to report to Jules that everything is alright." Bella said. "I just can't believe Voldem-!"

Ron tackled Bella to the ground, shoving his fingers down her throat in an attempt to muffle her words. "Shut up! The word is jinxed!" He said. Bella pushed him off of her with a glare. "Fine." She snapped. She kicked Ron in the knee hard. "Get off me! And if you ever try and do that again, I'll cut your penis off in your sleep." She snarled, and Ron jumped off of her, frightened. Hermione giggled at her.

"So, tell me what happened to you three." Bella said with a laugh. She was glancing awkwardly at the injured figures of the Golden Trio group.

At Bella's words, he glanced around at Ron and Hermione. It was the first time that he had seen them properly since escaping from the vault. Both had angry red burns all over their faces and arms, and their clothing was singed away in places. They were wincing as they dabbed essence of dittany onto their many injuries. Hermione handed Harry the bottle, then pulled out four bottles of pumpkin juice she had brought from Shell Cottage and clean, dry robes for all of them. They changes and then gulped down the juice.

"Well, on the upside," said Ron finally, who was sitting watching the skin on his hands re grow, "We got the Horcrux. On the downside-"

"No sword," said Harry through gritted teeth, as he dripped dittany through the singed hole in his jeans onto the angry burn beneath.

"No sword," repeated Ron. "That double-crossing little scab..."

Harry pulled the Horcrux from the pocket of the wet jacket he had just taken off and set it down on the grass in front of them. Glinting in the sun, it drew their eyes as they swigged their bottles of juice.

"At least we can't wear it this time, that'd look a bit weird hanging around our necks," said Ron, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. "Yeah I get it. The locket." Bella said.  
Hermione looked across the lake to the far bank where the dragon was still drinking.

"What'll happen to it, do you think?" she asked, "Will it be alright?"

"You sound like Hagrid," said Ron, "It's a dragon, Hermione, it can look after itself. It's us we need to worry about."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I don't know how to break this to you," said Ron, "but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts."

All four of them started to laugh, and once started, it was difficult to stop. Harry's ribs ached, he felt lightheaded with hunger, but he lay back on the grass beneath the reddening sky and laughed until his throat was raw.

"What are we going to do, though?" said Hermione finally, hiccupping herself back to seriousness. "He'll know, won't he? You-Know-Who will know we know about his Horcruxes!"

"Maybe they'll be too scared to tell him!" said Ron hopefully, "Maybe they'll cover it up."

The sky, the smell of the lake water, the sound of Ron's voice were extinguished. Pain cleaved Harry's head like a sword stroke.

He was standing in a dimly lit room, and a semicircle of wizards faced him, and on the floor at his feet knelt a small, quaking figure.

"What did you say to me?" His voice was high and cold, but fury and fear burned inside him. The one thing that he had dreaded, but it could not be true, he could not see how...

The goblin was trembling, unable to meet the red eyes high above his.

"Say it again!" murmured Voldemort. "Say it again!"

"M-my Lord," stammered the goblin, its black eyes wide with terror, "m-my Lord... we t-tried to st-stop them... Im-impostors, my Lord... broke -broke into the-! Into the Lestranges' vault..."

"Impostors? What impostors? I thought Gringotts had ways of revealing impostors? Who were they?"

"It was... it was... the P-Potter b-boy and the t-two accomplices..."

"And they took?" he said, his voice rising, a terrible fear gripping him, "Tell me! What did they take?"

"A... a s-small golden c-cup m-my Lord..."

The scream of rage, of denial left him as if it were a stranger's. He was crazed, frenzied, it could not be true, it was impossible, nobody had known. How was it possible that the boy could have discovered his secret?

The Elder Wand slashed through the air and green light erupted through the room; the kneeling goblin rolled over dead; the watching wizards scattered before him, terrified. Bellatrix and Lucius Malfoy threw others behind them in their race for the door, and again and again his wand fell, and those who were left were slain, all of them, for bringing him this news, for hearing about the golden cup - Alone amongst the dead he stomped up and down, and they passed before him in vision: his treasures, his safeguards, his anchors to immortality, the diary was destroyed and the cup was stolen. What if, what if, the boy knew about the others? Could he know, had he already acted, had he traced more of them? Was Dumbledore at the root of this? Dumbledore, who had always suspected him; Dumbledore, dead on his orders; Dumbledore, whose wand was his now, yet who reached out from the ignominy of death through the boy, the boy-!

But surely if the boy had destroyed any of his Horcruxes, he, Lord Voldemort, would have known, would have felt it? He, the greatest wizard of them all; he, the most powerful; he, the killer of Dumbledore and of how many other worthless, nameless men. How could Lord Voldemort not have known, if he, himself, most important and precious, had been attacked, mutilated?

True, he had not felt it when the diary had been destroyed, but he had thought that was because he had no body to fell, being less than ghost... No, surely, the rest were safe... The other Horcruxes must be intact...

But he must know, he must be sure... He paced the room, kicking aside the goblin's corpse as he passed, and the pictures blurred and burned in his boiling brain: the lake, the shack, and Hogwarts -

A modicum of calm cooled his rage now. How could the boy know that he had hidden the ring in the Gaunt shack? No one had ever known him to be related to the Gaunts, he had hidden the connection, the killings had never been traced to him. The ring, surely, was safe.

And how could the boy, or anybody else, know about the cave or penetrate its protection? The idea of the locket being stolen was absurd...

As for the school: He alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumed the deepest secrets of that place...

And there was still Nagini, who must remain close now, no longer sent to do his bidding, under his protection...

But to be sure, to be utterly sure, he must return to each of his hiding places, he must redouble protection around each of his Horcruxes... A job, like the quest for the Elder Wand, that he must undertake alone...

Which should he visit first, which was in most danger? An old unease flickered inside him. Dumbledore had known his middle name... Dumbledore might have made the connection with the Gaunts... Their abandoned home was, perhaps, the least secure of his hiding places, it was there that he would go first...

The lake, surely impossible... though was there a slight possibility that Dumbledore might have known some of his past misdeeds, through the orphanage.

And Hogwarts... but he knew the his Horcrux there was safe; it would be impossible for Potter to enter Hogsmeade without detection, let alone the school. Nevertheless, it would be prudent to alert Snape to the fact that the boy might try to reenter the castle... To tell Snape why the boy might return would be foolish, of course; it had been a grave mistake to trust Bellatrix and Malfoy. Didn't their stupidity and carelessness prove how unwise it was ever to trust?

He would visit the Gaunt shack first, then, and take Nagini with him. He would not be parted from the snake anymore... and he strode from the room, through the hall, and out into the dark garden where the fountain played; he called the snake in Parseltongue and it slithered out to join him like a long shadow...

Harry's eyes flew open as he wrenched himself back to the present. He was lying on the bank of the lake in the setting sun, and Ron and Hermione were looking down at him. Judging by their worried looks, and by the continued pounding of his scar, his sudden excursion into Voldemort's mind had not passed unnoticed. He struggled up, shivering, vaguely surprised that he was still wet to his skin, and saw the cup lying innocently in the grass before him, and the lake, deep blue shot with gold in the falling sun.

"He knows." His own voice sounded strange and low after Voldemort's high screams. "He knows and he's going to check where the others are, and the last one," he was already on his feet, "is at Hogwarts. I knew it. I knew it."

"What?"

Ron was gaping at him; Hermione sat up, looking worried. "What?" Bella said, confused as she looked towards the others.

"But what did you see? How do you know?"

"I saw him find out about the cup, I- I was in his head, he's!" Harry remembered the killings. "He's seriously angry, and scared too, he can't understand how we knew, and now he's going to check the others are safe, the ring first. He things the Hogwarts one is safest, because Snape's there, because it'll be so hard not to be seen getting in. I think he'll check that one last, but he could still be there within hours-! "

"Did you see where in Hogwarts it is?" asked Ron, now scrambling to his feet too.

"No, he was concentrating on warning Snape, he didn't think about exactly where it is-! "

"Wait, wait!" cried Hermione as Ron caught up to the Horcrux and Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak again. "We can't just go, we haven't got a plan, we need to get going-!"

"We need to get going," said Harry firmly. He had been hoping to sleep, looking forward to getting into the new tent, but that was impossible now, "Can you imagine what he's going to do once he realizes the ring and the locket are gone? What if he moves the Hogwarts Horcrux, decides it isn't safe enough?"

"Don't know about you Potter, but I'm not filled in." Bella said, standing up.

"But how are we going to get in?"

"We'll go to Hogsmeade," said Harry, "and try to work something out once we see what the protection around the school's like. Get under the Cloak, Hermione, I want to stick together this time. Bella, are you going to come with us?"

"Yeah dude, seems important." Bella said with a smile.

"But we don't really fit-! "

"It'll be dark, no one's going to notice our feet."

The flapping of enormous wings echoed across the black water. The dragon had drunk its fill and risen into the air. They paused in their preparations to watch it climb higher and higher, now black against the rapidly darkening sky, until it vanished over a nearby mountain. Then Hermione walked forward and took her place between the other two, Harry pulled the Cloak down as far as it would go. "Bella, your not being hunted, you can go cloakless, right?" Harry asked. Bella nodded. Together they turned on the spot into the crushing darkness.

Harry's feet touched the road. He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark shop fronts, and the mist line of black mountains beyond the village and the curve in the road ahead that led off toward Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks, and with a lurch of the hear, he remembered with piercing accuracy, how he had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore, all this in a second, upon landing and then, even as he relaxed his grip upon Ron's and Hermione's arms, it happened.

The air was rent by a scream that sounded like Voldemort's when he had realized the cup had been stolen: It tore at every nerve in Harry's body, and he knew that their appearance had caused it.

Even as he looked at the other two beneath the Cloak, and Bella looking around, confused, the door of the Three Broomsticks burst open and a dozen cloaked and hooded Death Eaters dashed into the streets, their wands aloft.

Harry seized Ron's wrist as he raised his wand; there were too many of them to run. Even attempting it would have give away their position. One of the Death Eaters raised his wand, and the scream stopped, still echoing around the distant mountains.

"Accio Cloak!" roared one of the Death Eaters Harry seized his folds, but it made no attempt to escape. The Summoning Charm had not worked on it.

"Not under your wrapper, then, Potter?" yelled the Death Eater who had tried the charm and then to his fellows. "Spread now. He's here."

Six of the Death Eaters ran toward them: Bella walked backwards and behind a large sign, disappearing behind the sign, the Death Eaters went right pass her. With a slight nod to Harry, Ron and Hermione, thy got the hint and backed as quickly as possible down the nearest side street, and the Death Eaters missed them by inches. They waited in the darkness, listening to the footsteps running up and down, beams of light flying along the street from the Death Eaters' searching wands.

"Let's just leave!" Hermione whispered. "Disapparate now!"

"Don't." Bella breathed. Harry nodded.

"They were ready for us," whispered Harry. "They set up that spell to tell them we'd come. I reckon they've done something to keep us here, trap us."

"What about dementors?" called another Death Eater. "Let'em have free rein, they'd find him quick enough!"

"The Dark Lord wants Potter dead by no hands but his."

"-! Ah dementors won't kill him! The Dark Lord wants Potter's life, nor his soul. He'll be easier to kill if he's been Kissed first!"

There were noises of agreement. Dread filled Harry: To repel dementors they would have to produce Patronuses which would give them away immediately.

"We're going to have to try to Disapparate, Harry!" Hermione whispered.

Even as she said it, he felt the unnatural cold being spread over the street. Light was sucked from the environment right up to the stars, which vanished. In the pitch blackness, he felt Hermione take hold of his arm and together, they turned on the spot.

The air through which they needed to move, seemed to have become solid: They could not Disapparate; the Death Eaters had cast their charms well. The cold was biting deeper and deeper into Harry's flesh. He, Ron and Hermione retreated down the side street, groping their way along the wall trying not to make a sound. Then, around the corner, gliding noiselessly, came dementors, ten or more of them, visible because they were of a denser darkness than their surroundings, with their black cloaks and their scabbed and rotting hands. Could they sense fear in the vicinity? Harry was sure of it: They seemed to be coming more quickly now, taking those dragging, rattling breaths he detested, tasting despair in the air, closing in - He raised his wand: He could not, would not suffer the Dementor's Kiss, whatever happened afterward. It was of Ron and Hermione that he thought as he whispered "Expecto Patronum!"

The silver stag burst from his wand and charged: The Dementors scattered and there was a triumphant yell from somewhere out of sight

"It's him, down there, down there, I saw his Patronus, it was a stag!" The Death Eater's snapped. Bella appeared in front of the trio but she had ran fast.

The Dementors have retreated, the stars were popping out again and the footsteps of the Death Eaters were becoming louder; but before Harry in his panic could decide what to do, there was a grinding of bolts nearby, a door opened on the left-side of the narrow street, and a rough voice said: "Bella, in here, quick!"

He obeyed without hesitation, the four of them hurried through the open doorway.

"Upstairs, keep the Cloak on, keep quiet!" muttered a tall figure, passing them on his way into the street and slammed the door behind him.

Harry had had no idea where they were, but now he saw, by the stuttering light of a single candle, the grubby, sawdust bar of the Hog's Head Inn. They ran behind the counter and through a second doorway, which led to a trickery wooden staircase, that they climbed as fast as they could. The stairs opened into a sitting room with a durable carpet and a small fireplace, above which hung a single large oil painting of a blonde girl who gazed out at the room with a kind of a vacant sweetness.

Shouts reached from the streets below. Still wearing the Invisibility Cloak on, they hurried toward the grimy window and looked down. Their savior, whom Harry now recognized as the Hog's Head's barman, was the only person not wearing a hood.

"So what?" he was bellowing into one of the hooded faces. "So what? You send dementors down my street, I'll send a Patronus back at'em! I'm not having'em near me, I've told you that. I'm not having it!"

"That wasn't your Patronus," said a Death Eater. "That was a stag. It was Potter's!"

"Stag!" roared the barman, and he pulled out a wand. "Stag! You idiot! Expecto Patronum!"

Something huge and horned erupted from the wand. Head down, it charged toward the High Street, and out of sight.

"That's not what I saw" said the Death Eater, though was less certainly "Curfew's been broken, you heard the noise," one of his companions told the barman. "Someone was out on the streets against regulations. "

"If I want to put my cat out, I will, and be damned to your curfew!"

"You set off the Caterwauling Charm?"

"What if I did? Going to cart me off to Azkaban? Kill me for sticking my nose out my own front door? Do it, then, if you want to! But I hope for your sakes you haven't pressed your little Dark Marks, and summoned him. He's not going to like being called here, for me and my old cat, is he, now?"

"Don't worry about us." said one of the Death Eaters, "worry about yourself, breaking curfew!"

"And where will you lot traffic potions and poisons when my pub's closed down? What will happen to your little sidelines then?"

"Are you threatening-!?"

"I keep my mouth shut, it's why you come here, isn't it?"

"I still say I saw a stag Patronus!" shouted the first Death Eater.

"Stag?" roared the barman. "It's a goat, idiot!"

"All right, we made a mistake," said the second Death Eater. "Break curfew again and we won't be so lenient!"

The Death Eaters strode back towards the High Street. Hermione moaned with relief, wove out from under the Cloak, and sat down on a wobble-legged chair. Harry drew the curtains then pulled the Cloak off himself and Ron. They could hear the barman down below, rebolting the door of the bar, then climbing the stairs. Bella snickered to herself.

Harry's attention was caught by something on the mantelpiece: a small, rectangular mirror, propped on top of it, right beneath the portrait of the girl.

The barman entered the room.

"You bloody fools," he said gruffly, looking from one to the other of them. "What were you thinking, coming here?"

"Thank you," said Harry. "We can't thank you enough. You saved our lives!"

The barman grunted. Harry approached him looking up into the face: trying to see past the long, stringy, wire-gray hair beard. He wore spectacles. Behind the dirty lenses, the eyes were a piercing, brilliant blue.

"It's your eye I've been seeing in the mirror."

There was a silence in the room. Harry and the barman looked at each other.

"You sent Dobby."

The barman nodded and looked around for the elf.

"Thought he'd be with you. Where've you left him?"

"He's dead," said Harry, "Bellatrix Lestrange killed him."

The barman face was impassive. After a few moments he said, "I'm sorry to hear it, I liked that elf."

He turned away, lightning lamps with prods of his wand, not looking at any of them.

"You're Aberforth," said Harry to the man's back.

He neither confirmed or denied it, but bent to light the fire.

"How did you get this?" Harry asked, walking across to Sirius's mirror, the twin of the one he had broken nearly two years before.

"Bought it from Dung 'bout a year ago," said Aberforth. "Albus told me what it was. Been trying to keep an eye out for you."

Ron gasped.

"The silver doe," he said excitedly, "Was that you too?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Aberforth.

"Someone sent a doe Patronus to us!"

"Brains like that, you could be a Death Eater, son. Haven't I just prove my Patronus is a goat?"

"Oh," said Ron, "Yeah... well, I'm hungry!" he added defensively as his stomach gave an enormous rumble.

"I got food," said Aberforth, and he sloped out of the room, reappearing moments later with a large loaf of bread, some cheese, and a pewter jug of mead, which he set upon a small table in front of the fire.

Ravenous, they ate and drank, and for a while there was sound of chewing.

"Right then," said Aberforth when the had eaten their fill and Harry and Ron sat slumped dozily in their chairs. "We need to think of the best way to get you out of here. Can't be done by night, you heard what happens if anyone moves outdoors during darkness: Caterwauling Charm's set off, they'll be onto you like bowtruckles on doxy eggs. I don't reckon I'll be able to pass of a stag as a goat a second time. Wait for daybreak when curfew lifts, then you can put your Cloak back on and set out on foot. Get right out of Hogsmeade, up into the mountains, and you'll be able to Disapparate there. Might see Hagrid. He's been hiding in a cave up there with Grawp ever since they tried to arrest him."

"We're not leaving," said Harry. "We need to get into Hogwarts."

"Don't be stupid, boy," said Aberforth.

"We've got to," said Harry.

"What you've got to do," said Aberforth, leaning forward, "is to get as far from here as from here as you can."

"You don't understand. There isn't much time. We've got to get into the castle. Dumbledore, I mean, your brother, wanted us to." Harry said.

The firelight made the grimy lenses of Aberforth's glasses momentarily opaque, a bright flat white, and Harry remembered the blind eyes of the giant spider, Aragog.

"My brother Albus wanted a lot of things," said Aberforth, "and people had a habit of getting hurt while he was carrying out his grand plans. You get away from this school, Potter, and out of the country if you can. Forget my brother and his clever schemes. He's gone where none of this can hurt him, and you don't owe him anything."

"You don't understand." said Harry again.

"Oh, don't I?" said Aberforth quietly. "You don't think I understood my own brother? Think you know Albus better than I did?"

"I didn't mean that," said Harry, whose brain felt sluggish with exhaustion and from the surfeit of food and wine. "It's... he left me a job." He said, and Bella nodded. "He's right Dumbles." Bella said, nodding.

"Did he now?" said Aberforth. "Nice job, I hope? Pleasant? Easy? Sort of thing you'd expect an unqualified wizard kid to be able to do without overstretching themselves?"

Ron gave a rather grim laugh. Hermione was looking strained.

"I-it's not easy, no," said Harry. "But I've got to-!"

"Got to? Why got to? He's dead, isn't he?" said Aberforth roughly. "Let it go, boy, before you follow him! Save yourself!"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I…" Harry felt overwhelmed; he could not explain, so he took the offensive instead. "But you're fighting too, you're in the Order of the Phoenix-!"

"I was," said Aberforth. "The Order of the Phoenix is finished. You-Know-Who's won, it's over, and anyone who's pretending deferent's kidding themselves. It'll never be safe for you here, Potter, he wants you too badly. So go abroad, go into hiding, save yourself. Best take these two with you." He jerked a thumb at Ron and Hermione.

"They'll be in danger long as they live now everyone knows they've been working with you."

"I can't leave," said Harry. "I've got a job-!"

"Give it to someone else!"

"I can't. It's got to be me, Dumbledore explained it all-!"

"Oh, did he now? And did he tell you everything, was he honest with you?"

Harry wanted him with all his heart to say "Yes," but somehow the simple word would not rise to his lips, Aberforth seemed to know what he was thinking.

"I knew my brother, Potter. He learned secrecy at our mother's knee. Secrets and lies, that's how we grew up, and Albus... he was a natural."

The old man's eyes traveled to the painting of the girl over the mantelpiece. It was, now Harry looked around properly, the only picture in the room. There was no photograph of Albus Dumbledore, nor of anyone else.

"Mr. Dumbledore" said Hermione rather timidly. "Is that your sister? Ariana?"

"Yes." said Aberforth tersely. "Been reading Rita Skeeter, have you, missy?"

Even by the rosy light of the fire it was clear that Hermione had turned red.

"Elphias Doge mentioned her to us," said Harry, trying to spare Hermione.

"That old berk," muttered Aberforth, taking another swig of mead. "Thought the sun shone out of my brother's every orifice, he did. Well, so did plenty of people, you three included, by the looks of it. No idea about you Bella." Aberforth.

"Do you two know each other?" Ron asked.

"Yeah. We were both in the Order of Phoenix you dunce." Bella said, rolling her eyes.

Harry kept quiet. He did not want to express the doubts and uncertainties about Dumbledore that had riddled him for months now. He had made his choice while he dug Dobby's grave, he had decided to continue along the winding, dangerous path indicated for him by Albus Dumbledore, to accept that he had not been told everything that he wanted to know, but simply to trust. He had no desire to doubt again; he did not want o hear anything that would deflect him from his purpose. He met Aberforth's gaze, which was so strikingly like his brothers': The bright blue eyes gave the same impression that they were X-raying the object of their scrutiny, and Harry thought that Aberforth knew what he was thinking and despised him for it.

"Professor Dumbledore cared about Harry, very much," said Hermione in a low voice.

"Did he now?" said Aberforth. "Funny thing how many of the people my brother cared about very much ended up in a worse state than if he'd left 'em well alone."

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione breathlessly.

"Never you mind," said Aberforth.

"But that's a really serious thing to say!" said Hermione. "Are you…are you talking about your sister?"

Aberforth glared at her: His lips moved as if he were chewing the words he was holding back. Then he burst into speech.

"When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, by three Muggle boys. They'd seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: She was a kid, she couldn't control it, no witch or wizard can at that age. What they saw, scared them, I expect. They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn't show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it."

Hermione's eyes were huge in the firelight; Ron looked slightly sick. Aberforth stood up, tall as Albus, and suddenly terrible in his anger and the intensity of his pain.

"It destroyed her, what they did: She was never right again. She wouldn't use magic, but she couldn't get rid of it; it turned inward and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn't control it, and at times she was strange and dangerous. But mostly she was sweet and scared and harmless."

"And my father went after the bastards that did it," said Aberforth, "and attacked them. And they locked him up in Azkaban for it. He never said why he'd done it, because the Ministry had known what Ariana had become, she'd have been locked up in St. Mungo's for good. They'd have seen her as a serious threat to the International Statute of Secrecy, unbalanced like she was, with magic exploding out of her at moments when she couldn't keep it in any longer."

"We had to keep her safe and quiet. We moved house, put it about she was ill, and my mother looked after her, and tried to keep her calm and happy."

"I was her favorite," he said, and as he said it, a grubby schoolboy seemed to look out through Aberforth's wrinkles and wrangled beard. "Not Albus, he was always up in his bedroom when he was home, reading his books and counting his prizes, keeping up with his correspondence with the most notable magical names of the day,"

Aberforth succored. "He didn't want to be bothered with her. She liked me best. I could get her to eat when she wouldn't do it for my mother, I could calm her down, when she was in one of her rages, and when she was quiet, she used to help me feed the goats."

"Then, when she was fourteen... See, I wasn't there." said Aberforth. "If I'd been there, I could have calmed her down. She had one of her rages, and my mother wasn't as young as she was, and... it was an accident. Ariana couldn't control it. But my mother was killed."

Harry felt a horrible mixture of pity and repulsion; he did not want to hear any more, but Aberforth kept talking, and Harry wondered how long it had been since he had spoken about this; whether, in fact, he had ever spoken about it.

"So that put paid to Albus's trip round the world with little Doge. The pair of 'em came home for my mother's funeral and then Doge went off on his own, and Albus settled down as head of the family. Ha!"

Aberforth spat into the fire.

"I'd have looked after her, I told him so, I didn't care about school, I'd have stayed home and done it.

He told me I had to finish my education and he'd take over from my mother. Bit of a comedown for Mr. Brilliant, there's no prizes for looking after your half-mad sister, stopping her blowing up the house every other day. But he did all right for a few weeks... till he came."

And now a positively dangerous look crept over Aberforth's face.

"Grindelwald. And at last, my brother had an equal to talk to someone just as bright and talented he was. And looking after Ariana took a backseat then, while they were hatching all their plans for a new Wizarding order and looking for Hallows, and whatever else it was they were so interested in. Grand plans for the benefit of all Wizard kind, and if one young girl neglected, what did that matter, when Albus was working for the greater good?"

"But after a few weeks of it, I'd had enough, I had. It was nearly time for me to go hack to Hogwarts, so I told 'em, both of 'em, face-to-face, like I am to you, now," and Aberforth looked downward Harry, and it took a little imagination to see him as a teenager, wiry and angry, confronting his elder brother. "I told him, you'd better give it up now. You can't move her, she's in no fit state, you can't take her with you, wherever it is you're planning to go, when you're making your clever speeches, trying to whip yourselves up a following. He didn't like that." said Aberforth, and his eyes were briefly occluded by the firelight on the lenses of his glasses: They turned white and blind again. "Grindelwald didn't like that at all. He got angry. He told me what a stupid little boy I was, trying to stand in the way of him and my brilliant brother... Didn't I understand, my poor sister wouldn't have to be hidden once they'd changed the world, and led the wizards out of hiding, and taught the Muggles their place?"

"And there was an argument... and I pulled my wand, and he pulled out his, and I had the Cruciatus Curse used on me by my brother's best friend, and Albus was trying to stop him, and then all three of us were dueling, and the flashing lights and the bangs set her off, she couldn't stand it. "

The color was draining from Aberforth's face as though he had suffered a mortal wound.

"-! and I think she wanted to help, but she didn't really know what she was doing, and I don't know which of us did it, it could have been any of us, and she was dead."

His voice broke on the last word and he dropped down into the nearest chair. Hermione's face was wet with tears, and Ron was almost as pale as Aberforth. Harry felt nothing but revulsion: He wished he had not heard it, wished he could wash is mind clean of it. Bella was raising an eyebrow, trying not to grimace out of sadness.

"I'm so... I'm so sorry," Hermione whispered.

"Gone," croaked Aberforth. "Gone forever."

He wiped his nose on hiss cuff and cleared his throat.

" 'Course, Grindelwald scampered. He had a bit of a track record already, back in his own country, and he didn't want Ariana set to his account too. And Albus was free, wasn't he? Free of the burden of his sister, free to become the greatest wizard of the-! "

"He was never free," said Harry.

"I beg your pardon?" said Aberforth.

"Never," said Harry. "The night that your brother died, he drank a potion that drove him out of his mind. He started screaming, pleading with someone who wasn't there. 'Don't hurt them, please... hurt me instead.' "

Ron and Hermione were staring at Harry. He had never gone into details about what had happened on the island on the lake.

The events that had taken place after he and Dumbledore had returned to Hogwarts had eclipsed it so thoroughly.

"He thought he was back there with you and Grindelwald, I know he did," said Harry, remembering Dumbledore whispering, pleading.

"He thought he was watching Grindelwald hurting you and Ariana... It was torture to him, if you'd seen him then, you wouldn't say he was free."

Aberforth seemed lost in contemplation of his own knotted and veined hands. After a long pause he said. "How can you be sure, Potter, that my brother wasn't more interested in the greater good than in you? How can you be sure you aren't dispensable, just like my little sister?"

A shard of ice seemed to pierce Harry's heart.

"I don't believe it. Dumbledore loved Harry," said Hermione.

"Why didn't he tell him to hide, then?" shot back Aberforth. "Why didn't he say to him, 'Take care of yourself, here's how to survive'?"

"Because," said Harry before Hermione could answer, "sometimes you've got to think about more than your own safety! Sometimes you've got to think about the greater good! This is war!"

"You're seventeen, boy!"

"I'm of age, and I'm going to keep fighting even if you've given up!"

"Who says I've given up?"

"_The Order of the Phoenix is finished_," Harry repeated, "_You-Know-Who's won, it's over, and anyone who's pretending different's kidding themselves._"

"I don't say I like it, but it's the truth!"

"No, it isn't." said Harry. "Your brother knew how to finish You-Know-Who and he passed the knowledge on to me. I'm going to keep going until I succeed or I die. Don't think I don't know how this might end. I've known it for years."

He waited for Aberforth to jeer or to argue, but he did not. He merely moved.

"We need to get into Hogwarts," said Harry again. "If you can't help us, we'll wait till daybreak, leave you in peace, and try to find a way in ourselves. If you can help us well, now would be a great time to mention it."

Aberforth remained fixed in his chair, gazing at Harry with the eyes that were so extraordinarily like his brother's. At last he cleared his throat, got to his feet, walked around the little table, and approached the portrait of Ariana.

"You know what to do," he said.

She smiled, turned, and walked away, not as people in portraits usually did, one of the sides of their frames, but along what seemed to be a long tunnel painted behind her. They watched her slight figure retreating until finally she was swallowed by the darkness.

"Err, what…?" began Ron.

"There's only one way in now," said Aberforth. "You must know they've got all the old secret passageways covered at both ends, dementors all around the boundary walls, regular patrols inside the school from what my sources tell me. The place has never been so heavily guarded.

How you expect to do anything once you get inside it, with Snape in charge and the Carrows as his deputies... well, that's your lookout, isn't it? You say you're prepared to die."

"But what...?" said Hermione, frowning at Ariana's picture.

A tiny white dot reappeared at the end of the painted tunnel, and now Ariana was walking back toward them, growing bigger and bigger as she came. But there was somebody else with her now, someone taller than she was, who was limping along, looking excited. His hair was longer than Harry had ever seen. He appeared and torn. Larger and larger the two figures grew, until only their heads and shoulders filled the portrait.

Then the whole thing swang forward on the wall like a little door, and the entrance to a real tunnel was revealed. And out of it, his hair overgrown, his face cut, his robes ripped, clambered the real Neville Longbottom, who gave a roar of delight, leapt down from the mantelpiece and yelled.

"I knew you'd come! I knew it, Harry!"

Neville, what the, how?"

But Neville had spotted Ron and Hermione, and with yells of delight was hugging them too. The longer Harry looked at Neville, the worse he appeared: One of his eyes was swollen yellow and purple, there were gouge marks on his face, and his general air of unkemptness suggested that he had been living enough. Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of Hermione and instead grabbed Bella, who's eyebrows shot up out of anger. "Who are you?" Neville said. Bella brandished her wand like a knife. "I will cut your penis off. Right here. Right now. I don't do hugs, stranger." Neville leapt back and smiled at Harry. He said again and again.

"I knew you'd come! Kept telling Seamus said it was only a matter of time!" 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

**Normal Pov**

There was a loud knock at the door. Juliunna got up, and ignoring Mrs. Weasley's yell of warning, opened the door. "Harry!" She squealed. She reached forward and hugged him tightly. Harry laughed joyously.

Behind her was Mrs. Weasley, who had just jumped up from the table. Mrs. Weasley was short, plump, and wearing an old green dressing gown.

"Harry, dear! Gracious, Albus, you gave me a fright, you said not to expect you before morning!"

"We were lucky," said Dumbledore, ushering Harry, who was still trapped in Juliunna's tight hug, over the threshold. "Slughorn proved much more persuadable than I had expected. Harry's doing, of course. Ah, hello, Nymphadora!"

Harry hugged Juliunna back. "How have you been doing. I see your alive!"

"Yes, yes I am." He chuckled. She let him go and quickly ran over to the coat rack.

Harry looked around and saw that Mrs. Weasley and Juliunna were not alone, despite the lateness of the hour. A young witch with a pale, heart-shaped face and mousy brown hair was sitting at the table clutching a large mug between her hands.

"Hello, Professor," she said. " Wotcher, Harry." She added.

"Hi, Tonks."

Harry thought she looked drawn, even ill, and there was something forced in her smile. Certainly her appearance was less colorful than usual without her customary shade of bubble-gum-pink hair. Juliunna hurried over and handed Tonks her cloak.

"I'd better be off. Thank you dear," she said quickly, standing up and pulling her cloak around her shoulders. "Thanks for the tea and sympathy, Molly"

"Please don't leave on my account," said Dumbledore courteously, "I cannot stay, I have urgent matters to discuss with Rufus Scrimgeour."

"No, no, I need to get going," said Tonks, not meeting Dumbledore's eyes. "Night." She added. "You stay giggling kiddo." She added to Juliunna, rubbing the top of her head. Juliunna laughed. "You try and feel better Tonks."

"I will." Tonks said, trying to force a smile.

"Dear, why not come to dinner at the weekend, Remus and Mad-Eye are coming." Molly said, patting her on the shoulder.

"No, really, Molly. . . thanks anyway. . . Good night, every-one.

Tonks hurried past Dumbledore and Harry into the yard; a few paces beyond the doorstep, she turned on the spot and vanished into thin air. Harry noticed that Mrs. Weasley looked troubled.

Juliunna sighed. "She was in love with Sirius." Juliunna said to Mrs. Weasley, who chuckled.

"No she wasn't dear."

"I bet she's pregnant."

"She's not pregnant. Now stop asking. Your too young, and I'm not going to tell you. Well, Tonks left, so you should go to bed now." Mrs. Weasley said, and Juliunna groaned with disappointment.

"Not yet Juliunna." Albus said, stopping Juliunna mid step.

"Yes?" She smiled.

"Well dear, as you arrived entirely too late in the year to take your OWL's, which by the way, arrive sometime this afternoon," Dumbledore started. "You will take your owls with the same schedule as Miss Weasley this school year. For your protection of course. I suggest that if you start studying now, you will know enough. There are pamphlets and studying for owls that normal students wouldn't have access to. But seeing as if your going to have to learn five years worth of magic in one year, you should really focus on the work."

Juliunna's mouth dropped open. When she closed it, she took a deep breath. "Mrs. Weasley! I need to go to Diagon Alley! I have to buy books so I can study! Dumbledore, does it turn out that I have access to a volt at Gringotts?"

"Yes." He said. "I have warned the goblins that you are a descendent to Salazar Slytherin, which after a few generations were translated to Peverall of course. You have no key. Instead, all you have to do is prove a DNA test at the volt. Upon further investigation, each time you enter your volt, you must place a drop of blood on the lock. If you are of Peverall Blood, your volt will open."

"And if it doesn't?!" Juliunna snarled, crossing her arms. Mrs. Weasley threw her a warning look, but Dumbledore chuckled. "You truly are your father's daughter. Well, I shall see you at Hogwarts, Juliunna and Harry," said Dumbledore. "Take care of yourself, Molly."

He bade Mrs. Weasley a bow and followed Tonks, vanishing at precisely the same spot. Mrs. Weasley closed the door on the empty yard and then steered Harry by the shoulders into the full glow of lantern on the table to examine his appearance.

"You're like Ron," she sighed, looking him up and down. "Both of you look as though you've had Stretching jinxes put on you. Ron's grown four inches since I last bought him school robes. Are you hungry, Harry?"

"Yeah, I am," said Harry, suddenly realizing just how hungry he was,

"Sit down, dear, I'll make something up."

"Oh no you don't!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. Juliunna had tried to go quietly upstairs. "Yes?"

"You showed Professor Dumbledore very little respect! You need to sweeten up that attitude! Get working on these dishes."

Juliunna threw her head back in a groan and stomped over to the sink. "Fine!" She groaned. Harry chuckled quietly to himself.

As Harry sat down, a furry ginger cat with a squashed face lumped onto his knees and settled there, purring.

"So Hermione's here?" he asked happily as he tickled Crookshanks behind the ears.

"Oh yes, she arrived the day before yesterday," said Mrs. Weasley, rapping a large iron pot with her wand. It bounced onto the stove with a loud clang and began to bubble at once. "Everyone's in bed, of course, we didn't expect you for hours. Here you are."

She tapped the pot again; it rose into the air, flew toward Harry, and tipped over; Mrs. Weasley slid a bowl nearly beneath it just in lime to catch the stream of thick, steaming onion soup.

"Bread, dear? Use the blue soap." Mrs. Weasley said, raising an eyebrow at Juliunna, who rolled her eyes.

"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley." Harry smiled.

She waved her wand over her shoulder; a loaf of bread and a knife soared gracefully onto the table; as the loaf sliced itself and the soup pot dropped back onto the stove, Mrs. Weasley sat down opposite him.

"So you persuaded Horace Slughorn to take the job?"

Harry nodded, his mouth so full of hot soup that he could not speak.

"He taught Arthur and me," said Mrs. Weasley. "He was at Hogwarts for ages, started around the same time as Dumbledore, I think. Did you like him?"

His mouth now full of bread, Harry shrugged and gave a noncommittal jerk of the head.

"I know what you mean," said Mrs. Weasley, nodding wisely. "Of course he can be charming when he wants to be, but Arthur's never liked him much. Scrub it in circles! The Ministry's littered with Siughorn's old favorites, he was always good at giving leg ups, but he never had much time for Arthur ? Didn't seem to think he was enough of a highflier. Well, that just shows you, even Slughorn makes mistakes."

"Yes, its Slughorn who made the mistake." Juliunna laughed.

"If you don't control your attitude, I'm going to make you sleep in the attic with the ghoul! Anyway Harry, I don't know whether Ron's told you in any of his letters? It's only just happened, but Arthur's been promoted!"

It could not have been clearer that Mrs. Weasley had been bursting to say this.

Harry swallowed a large amount of very hot soup and thought he could feel his throat blistering. "That's great!" He gasped.

"You are sweet," beamed Mrs. Weasley, possibly taking his watering eyes for emotion at the news. "Yes, Rufus Scrimgeour has set up several new offices in response to the present situation, and Arthur's heading the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. It's a big job, he's got ten people reporting to him now!"

"What exactly ?"

"Well, you see, in all the panic about You-Know-Who, odd things have been cropping up for sale everywhere, things that are supposed to guard against You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters. You can imagine the kind of thing ?so-called protective potions that are really gravy with a bit of bubotuber pus added, or instructions for defensive jinxes that actually make your ears fall off. . . . Well, in the main the perpetrators are just people like Mundungus Hotelier, who've never done an honest day's work in their lives and are taking advantage of how frightened everybody is, but every now and then something really nasty turns up. The other day Arthur confiscated a box of cursed Sneakoscopes that were almost certainly planted by a Death Eater. So you see, it's a very important job, and I tell him it's just silly to miss dealing with spark plugs and toasters and all the rest of that Muggle rubbish." Mrs. Weasley ended her speech with a stern look, as if it had been Harry suggesting that it was natural to miss spark plugs.

"Is Mr. Weasley still at work?" Harry asked.

"Yes, he is. As a matter of fact, he's a tiny bit late. ... He said he'd be back around midnight. . . ." Juliunna said,.

She and Mrs. Weasley turned to look at a large clock. It was perched awkwardly on top of a pile of sheets, in the washing basket at the end of the table. Harry recognized it at once: It had nine hands, each inscribed with the name of a family member, and usually hung in the Weasleys' sitting room wall, though its current position suggested that Mrs. Weasley had taken to carrying it around the house with her. Every single one of its nine hands was now pointing at "mortal peril."

"It's been like that for a while now," said Mrs. Weasley, in an un-convincingly casual voice, "ever since You-Know-Who came back into the open. I suppose everybody's in mortal danger now. ... I don't think it can be just our family . . . but I don't know anyone else who's got a clock like this, so I can't check. Oh!"

With a sudden exclamation she pointed at the clock's face. Mr. Weasley's hand had switched to "traveling."

"He's coming!" Juliunna said, throwing the dishes down. She walked to the table and sat down next to Harry, looking as if she was about to watch an interesting show.

And sure enough, a moment later there was a knock on the back door. Mrs. Weasley jumped up and hurried to it; with one hand on the doorknob and her face pressed against the wood she called softly, "Arthur, is that you?"

"Yes," came Mr. Weasley's weary voice. "But I would say that even if I were a Death Eater, dear. Ask the question!"

"Oh, honestly..."

"Molly!"

"All right, all right. . . What is your dearest ambition?"

"To find out how airplanes stay up."

Mrs. Weasley nodded and turned the doorknob, but apparently Mr. Weasley was holding tight to it on the other side, because the door remained firmly shut.

"Molly! I've got to ask you your question first!"

Juliunna smirked.

"Arthur, really, this is just silly. ..."

"What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?"

Even by the dim light of the lantern Harry could tell that Mrs. Weasley had turned bright red; he himself felt suddenly warm around the ears and neck, and hastily gulped soup, clattering his spoon as loudly as he could against the bowl. "Stop!" Juliunna snickered quietly.

"Mollywobbles," whispered a mortified Mrs. Weasley into the crack at the edge of the door.

"Correct," said Mr. Weasley. "Now you can let me in."

Mrs. Weasley opened the door to reveal her husband, a thin, balding, red-haired wizard wearing horn-rimmed spectacles and a long and dusty traveling cloak.

"I still don't see why we have to go through that every time you come home," said Mrs. Weasley, still pink in the face as she helped her husband out of his cloak. "I mean, a Death Eater might have forced the answer out of you before impersonating you!"

"I know, dear, but it's Ministry procedure, and I have to set an example. Something smells good ?onion soup?" Mr. Weasley turned hopefully in the direction of the table.

"Harry! We didn't expect you until morning. Good morning Juliunna!"

They all shook hands, and Mr. Weasley dropped into the chair beside Harry as Mrs. Weasley set a bowl of soup in front of him too. Juliunna took hers from Mrs. Weasley with a smile. "Thank you… _Mollywobbles_."

"In bed now!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, pointing to the ceiling.

"Wait! Mrs. Weasley please. I'll be quiet." Juliunna cried out, standing up.

"One more chance." She said.

"Thanks, Molly. It's been a tough night." Arthur said when Juliunna and Mrs. Weasley sat down. "Some idiot's started selling Metamorph-Medals. Just sling them around your neck and you'll be able to change your appearance at will. A hundred thousand disguises, all for ten Galleons!"

"And what really happens when you put them on?" Juliunna asked, putting a spoonful of soap in her mouth.

"Mostly you just turn a fairly unpleasant orange color, but a couple of people have also sprouted tentacle like warts all over their bodies. As if St. Mungo's didn't have enough to do already!"

"It sounds like the sort of thing Fred and George would find funny," said Mrs. Weasley hesitantly. "Are you sure ?"

"Of course I am!" said Mr. Weasley. "The boys wouldn't do anything like that now, not when people are desperate for protection!"

"So is that why you're late, Metamorph-Medals?"

"No, we got wind of a nasty backfiring jinx down in Elephant and Castle, but luckily the Magical Law Enforcement Squad had sorted it out by the time we got there. ..."

Harry stifled a yawn behind his hand.

"Bed," said an undeceived Mrs. Weasley at once. "I've got Fred and George's room all ready for you, you'll have it to yourself. Juliunna, you can move your stuff into Ginny's room, like I told you months ago."

"What?! But there are twin beds! Harry doesn't mind. Right?" Juliunna asked, turning to Harry. He shook his head no. "Of course not."

"Problem solved."

"Why don't you want to sleep with Ginny?" Arthur asked.

"Its not that I don't want to. Its just that I felt much more comfortable sleeping by myself. I've got a set of rules and principles. Ginny didn't like to follow them."

"What kind of principles?" Harry asked.

"Oh, well I don't like to go to bed late, unless I'm up studying, which will take place once I get my books, Harry." Juliunna said. Harry snorted into his soup bowl, but didn't say anything. "And then there's the fact that I can only sleep in the dark. Usually I take clothes and cover up the tiniest of lights. I can only sleep when its pitch black. And you have to stay silent. And you have to go to sleep when I decide to. Unless you decide to go to sleep before me. Ginny kicked me out weeks ago."

"What?!" Mrs. Weasley snarled, standing up.

"Yeah. I thought you knew." Juliunna said with a shrug. "She got mad and didn't want me to do it anymore. I couldn't do that, so we decided that we would be friends, but not roommates."

"Oh that girl… Alright. Harry, think hard now. Do you really want to room with Juliunna?" Mrs. Weasley said. Harry frowned. He peeked at Juliunna's smiling face, and then back to Mrs. Weasley's knowing ones. "Yes. Um, about Fred and George, where are they?"

"Oh, they're in Diagon Alley, sleeping in the little flat over their joke shop as they're so busy," said Mrs. Weasley. "I must say, I didn't approve at first, but they do seem to have a bit of a flair for business! Juliunna go show Harry to your room. Harry dear, your trunks already up there."

"'Night, Mr. Weasley," said Harry, pushing back his chair. Crookshanks leapt lightly from his lap and slunk out of the room. "G'night, Harry, Goodnight Juliunna" said Mr. Weasley.

"Goodnight everybody!" Juliunna waved at them, and yet out a loud yawn. She lead him up the stairs and into a large room.

Harry saw Mrs. Weasley glance at the clock in the washing basket as they left the kitchen. All the hands were once again at 'mortal peril.'

A considerable amount of floor space was devoted to a vast number of unmarked, sealed cardboard boxes, amongst which stood Harry's school trunk. The room looked as though it was being used as a temporary warehouse. "Fred and George keep dropping off their junk. It's not ready for the shop." She said with a smile.

"How's the shop?" Harry asked her, sitting down on the bed near the window.

"I've only been there once. Back in June, when they were just getting started. The walls were all grey and there was barely anything there. It was only two weeks in to production. But every time they come here, they keep telling us that their adding things on. Apparently, it's a real business now! I heard its great!

Hedwig hooted happily at them both from her perch on top of a large wardrobe, then took off through the window. Harry knew she had been waiting to see him before going hunting. Harry bade Juliunna good night, made her stand outside the door while he put on pajamas, and when they came back inside, they got into one of the beds. There was something hard inside the pillowcase. He groped inside it and pulled out a sticky purple-and-orange sweet, which he recognized as a Puking Pastille. "Ooh, candy?" Juliunna asked, and held out her hand. He opened his mouth to tell her 'no', but she talked first.

"Well don't be a stranger, share it!" She smiled. Harry threw it on the floor, and Juliunna scowled.

"It would have made you puke a river." He said. Juliunna got up and left the room, probably to go talk to someone else. Smiling to himself, he rolled over and was instantly asleep.

**…**

Seconds later, or so it seemed to Harry, he was awakened by what sounded like cannon fire as the door burst open. Sitting bolt upright, he heard the rasp of the curtains being pulled back: The dazzling sunlight seemed to poke him hard in both eyes. Shielding them with one hand, he groped hopelessly for his glasses with the other.

"Wuzzgoinon?"

"We didn't know you were here already!" said a loud and excited voice, and he received a sharp blow to the top of the head.

"Ron, don't hit him!" said a girl's voice reproachfully. "Hermione! Ron!" Harry said, sitting up. He looked over to the empty bed on the other side.

"Where's Juliunna?" He yawned.

"I don't know. No one's seen her all day." Hermione said with a shrug. Harry sat up abruptly. "What?"  
"Don't worry. It's a normal thing. She likes to go play in the garden and in the basement." Ron said.

"And go hide." Hermione said.

"And she's always playing around with magic objects."

"That she finds in the attic and basement." Hermione continued.

"I think she's trying to rebel hard, because Mom keeps trying to lock her up in the house, like Siri-!" Hermione hit Ron in the chest with her elbow hard, making him stop. "Oomph. Sorry Harry."

"It's alright." Harry sighed.

**Twenty minutes Later**

"Hello children." Mrs. Weasley called wearily. She had her wand pointed at something that the five of them, (Ginny, The Golden Trio, and Fleur Delacour- whom had joined them to bring up Harry's tray), couldn't see. Mrs. Weasley moved slowly into the room.

"Hey mom…Whoa." Ron finished. Floating higher then Mrs. Weasley's head, and lying on her back with her arms and legs lying lifelessly below her, was Juliunna. Her head was tilted back, her long, midnight hair spilling towards the floor. "I found her up on the roof. Dumbledore must have sent her owl requirements and tips books last night. She was asleep." Mrs. Weasley said. Everyone watched her softly lower her onto the bed by the wall, and with another flick of her wand, the blankets flew up to her chin. Mrs. Weasley was carrying a envelope in the other hand, which was roughly the size of a textbook. She placed it on the small dress next to Juliunna's bed, and walked off towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Ginny whispered. Juliunna twitched and turned around in her sleep. She snuggled into the pillow with a sigh.

"To lock the attic windows." Mrs. Weasley snapped back at her, and raised her wand as she walked off towards the attic. The kids chuckled to themselves, and went back to their conversations. But now they were whispering.

"I have to go downstairs. I need to send Bill an owl." Fleur said thickly, and then walked out of the door. Behind her, Ginny made rude gestures at her back, but they went unnoticed by the Fleur.. "I want to check these out. I never heard about owl requirements and tip books." Hermione said. She walked forward and grabbed the thick envelope. She opened the envelope, and ignoring Mrs. Weasley, who came back inside to retrieve Ginny, she plopped down next to a sleeping Juliunna, and started to read the first envelope. She read aloud the classes Juliunna had checked off when Ginny and Mrs. Weasley left.

_**The Following Exams I will be taking.**_

_**Ancient Runes **_

_**Herbology **_

_**Defense Against the Dark Arts**_

_**Charms**_

_**Astronomy**_

_**Potions**_

_**Care of Magical Creatures**_

_**History of Magic**_

_**Transfiguration.**_

_**Divination**_

_**Advanced Wizard and Witch Magic**_

_**Dark Arts**_

"Dark Arts? Advanced Wizard and Witch Magic? They didn't have that for us, but I suppose that under the circumstances… Dark Arts."

"Scratch it off. She doesn't need it." Ron yawned. Unbeknownst to Hermione, Juliunna's eyes snapped opened.

"No Ron. She obviously wants to study them. Why, even though we would never… Let's go on."

"She's really pushing herself. She's starting at a first year level. How's she gonna learn all this stuff?"

"Hard work, spaced out study times, and a plan." Juliunna muttered.

"Wakey bakey, eggs and bakey, sleepy head!" Ron cheered. She rolled her eyes and snuggled deeper into the bed. "Didn't you guys hear? I might not be going back to Hogwarts on time. I might just wait a month or so. It'll give me more time to study."

"You can't stay here!" Hermione whined. "You have to go to Hogwarts!" She said with a small smile.

"Yeah, but Dumbledore wants me to come in late, as I already said. The Death Eaters, or the Slytherins, could get me on the train." Juliunna yawned.

"Hmm." Hermione said, grabbing the next letter. "Dumbledore's really making this easy for you."  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Juliunna snapped, throwing her blanket off.

"What?!" Hermione said. Juliunna was glaring at her intensely. She was so scary, Hermione fought off the urge to flinch. "Um. I was just saying… I was just saying that he was kind enough to outline the things you have to learn for each subject, and give you instructions. And that you were lucky to get pamphlets, and booklists for each subject. Your taking one more class then me, and I'm taking eleven. It's lucky that your getting help-!"

Harry and Ron were shaking their heads no with wide eyes, trying to tell her to shut up.

"Help?! Help?! You may be somewhat intelligent, but you've been doing this thing for four years. And I'm taking twelve, and I'm just starting Wizarding Intelligence!" Juliunna snapped. She ripped the envelope out of Hermione's hand and rolled over, pulling the blankets over her head.

"I'm sorry if I offended you-!"

Juliunna's hand resurfaced, brandishing a wand. Hermione ran out of the boys room, shutting the door. When it was fully shut, Juliunna threw off the blankets and threw what Harry, Ron, and Hermione had mistaken for a wand. It was a stick.

"Ha!" Ron laughed loudly.

"Alright, everyone shut up." She said drowsily. "I'm gonna go to bed." She yawned. Ron and Harry stayed quiet as she rolled over and fell asleep the second her head hit the pillow.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

**Normal Pov**

Mrs. Weasley and Juliunna were crowded at the door with Tonks and Lupin, seeing them off. "Do you have to go?" Juliunna smiled. "Oh, yes. The first night of the cycle is always the worst." Tonks whispered. But Remus wasn't listening. He was focusing on the cornfield, watching, waiting for something. It was as if there was something there he couldn't see. He felt uneasy.

"Oh, I do hope you guys come back soon." Juliunna said, patting Tonks on the shoulder. Tonks smiled. "Don't worry kiddo, we'll be back soon-!" She cut off. Everyone was focused on the sky. There was a large fireball that resemblanced a flying black cloud. Except it was more configured and knew what it was doing. It swirled once around the house, the perimeter of the cornfield, and then stopped, it was quickly creating a one way route. In front of them, the same as the fire except now it was a flying black cloud, circled the path the fireball had made, and then landed with a twist of limbs in front of the cornfield. She was smirking and waving her wand.

"Bellatrix." Juliunna muttered. Remus and Tonks took out there wands and Molly grabbed Juliunna's shoulder. "No, get inside." She hissed. But Juliunna was knocked off her feet. Harry had just stormed pass her, his wand held up in fury. "Harry no!" Remus shouted, but Bellatrix laughed and turned to run through the small bit of fire that wasn't forming a circle. Juliunna didn't think twice about it. She ripped through of Molly's grip and followed the furious Harry Potter, now running after her. Harry and Juliunna made it pass the fire safely, but Remus, Tonks and Molly were immediately blocked in. She could see Tonks and Remus furiously fighting the fire with their wands. The fire was now moving like a snake, trying to stop them from passing.

"Harry! Harry stop!" Juliunna screamed. It was dangerous and foolish to follow him, but surely this was meant to be. Harry's jaw flinched and they continued off their furious run for Bellatrix Lestrange. "I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black!" She sang, skipping and running. She was a good deal ahead, and Juliunna dreaded what would happen if Harry and her were to be separated.

"Harry. Harry stop!" Juliunna shouted, for she wasn't fast enough. But Harry was fuming with anger. They had gone a great way, but the intensified screaming back at the Burrow told her that Tonks and Remus were still trying to get through the ring of fire.

"You coming to get me kiddies?!" Bellatrix squealed. There was a tug of strength in Juliunna's heart and with two extra strides, she had caught up to Harry and wrapped her arm around his chest. She pulled him to the ground hard with a splash. They were in some kind of giant puddle.

"Harry, Harry stop it! It's a trap!" She whispered feverishly. Harry was still struggling in her arms, but nonetheless, gritted his teeth and snapped back. "Of course it's a trap. And I welcome it. I want to kill her!"

"Harry sweetie. I know she killed Sirius, but think about it this way. Would Sirius have wanted you to become a murderer over that piece of filth?!" Juliunna snarled in his ear. Juliunna knew that Bellatrix had noticed that the children had stopped following her. Juliunna could hear Bellatrix singing shrilly and mockingly, doubling back to find them.

"No. He wouldn't." Harry sighed, going still in her arms. "Come on Harry, she's coming." Juliunna whispered. She grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him up. Harry seemed reluctant to leave. He held her in place. "Someone's watching us."

"Yes, its Bellatrix."

"No. Whoever's watching us… There all around." He whispered. "Take your wand out." Juliunna immediately hurried to obey him. It was true. There must have been a dozen death eaters around them. She could feel eyes on them both, and there were corn stalks moving in the near distance.

"Harry. Listen. Face this way." She whispered, and pointed his body straight to the burrow. They could see the top of the towering building before them.

"Yeah?" He said, gripping his wand tight. The death eaters were getting closer. Any minute now, they would strike the two kids.

"Think of this as a clock. The ones in muggle school. Twelve o'clock is full. Dangerous and a no go. You have to take a different route. You should start at nine o'clock and work your way to twelve. I'll start at three." She smiled. Harry did too.

"Of course. Be careful." He warned her. She nodded. "I always am. Come on. On the count of three. One, two, three." She whispered. She lifted her wand and brought it down with a loud crack. There was an explosion of fire and bangs, and the both of them split up, going there planned ways.

"Leave him!" Bellatrix shouted to the confused and shocked Death eaters, when the dust cleared seconds later. She had just arrived. Both Harry and Juliunna were gone, but there were two paths of corns stalks that had clearly just been pushed away. Harry had gone left, and Juliunna right.

"But if we get Potter now-!"

Bellatrix walked forward, angry. "Your orders were clear! Leave Potter alone! If we return without her, he shall be furious! Run! Now!" Bellatrix was shouting at the top of her lungs, her hair being thrown astray. There were eight death eaters all together. They took off to the side Juliunna had went.

**Juliunna Pov**

I could hear them. I ran fast, afraid of the oncoming truth. "Ah!" I snapped. I had just run head first into a body who had just ran through a thick patch of corn stalks. I breathed out a quick sign of release as I noticed the one I had just run into wasn't a death eater. She was wearing a pink bathrobe, and was standing up with a groan.

"Ginny! Ginny run! There right behind me!" I said, and she grabbed my shoulder tightly, pulling me to a stand. Together, we ran pass the thick corn stalks, and I winced as I was repeatedly hit in the face with there thorns.

"Where's Harry?!" She said, turning to me. Harry and I must have gone farther then we thought. I could see the burrow. It was getting bigger in view. "He went the other way!" I shouted back. There was a loud bang, and something white hot went pass me. It scrapped my cheek. We were running faster now. I could hear Mrs. Weasley's screaming as she hurried to put out the fire. Tonks and Remus had gotten through, for I could see the yard and the snake flame whip had opened up again.

"Ginny! Ginny hurry!" I shouted, and Mrs. Weasley had obviously heard me. She was screaming again, this time Ginny's and my name. I could see the whole yard again. We continued to run. Ginny grunted and continued on as a spell flew pass her, almost scraping her ear. There was a loud bang and she turned around, "Protego!" She cried out. I could see more now. The shed. The burrow's door. Ginny broke though the thick corn stalk and threw me forward. "Run!" I screamed. There was another bang, and it hit me in the back. I could see Mrs. Weasley as I buckled to the floor. It felt as if a thousand knives had just pierced my skin. I cried out, trying to hold in my scream. Ginny grabbed me and pulled me into her arms. She was half dragging me, half helping me to the borealis. Once we crossed it, no one with the Dark Mark could cross. We were almost there. I looked behind me. "Ah!" We both screamed. Half leaning on Ginny, I pointed my wand at Bellatrix, who was leaning against the corn starch, smirking. She didn't attack, and neither did the others. They had joined her, smirking at us as if they knew something we didn't. We backed up and the second Mrs. Weasley crossed the barrier, she grabbed my arm and helped Ginny. Harry burst through the corn stalk as we did, but on the east side of the house. He shuffled forward and entered the borealis, collapsing.

Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were pulling me into the borealis. I cried out. They had passed through with ease, but when I tried to get through, it had become solid and I fell back as if I was a football, thrown softly. They cried out in surprise. I turned around on my knees to face the death eaters, who were laughing now. Mrs. Weasley cried out and I turned around.

"You have the mark!" Ginny cried. Mrs. Weasley bit her lip.

"The Dark Lord said that it would come in useful. He always knows." Bellatrix laughed. All the death eaters laughed with her. I was frozen. I lifted my hands out and lay them inches from the solid globe which was now glowing bright, as if tense for battle. The Weasleys were gathering in front of me, trying to think of a way out of this. Molly was horrified. "Albus. He didn't tell us how to take it down." She was telling a stuttering Ron, who, when he tried to reach through to pull me in himself, found himself blocked.

"It's a defense mechanism!" I shouted. "Nothing goes in. Nothing goes out. For how long, I don't know." I cried out. I was inches away from safety, but now I had a permanent dark mark. Judging by the spot that was still in pain, it was the left side of my neck.

"There must be some spell." Harry said, but Ginny tapped her wand against it, and a blue ripple charted through the shield. Ginny lifted her wand. "Reducto!" But it bounced off the shield and flew over her hair. She had managed to duck just in time, but it hit the window, shattering. The Weasleys and Harry were standing at me, shocked.

"Oh, what a touching moment." I turned around. Bellatrix and her gang of Death Eaters were striding toward me. . Mrs. Weasley let out a horrified squeak and tried to reach through, but it was no use. I lifted my wand, but I didn't have a single thread of hope that I wouldn't be captured.

"We'll be meeting soon." Bellatrix waved at Harry, who snarled in anger. She was getting closer now.

"Stupify!" Ron suggested. "Stupify!"

"Stupify!" I shouted, pointing my wand at her. She brandished her wand like a sword and my spell oblivated in thin air. "Augimenti!" I shouted, pointing it at the death eaters. They were laughing, but my wand uttered a long and powerful stream just like a fireman's hose, and they were all nearly knocked off there feet.

"Incendio! Come on Juliunna, fight back!" Harry snapped, and hit the shield hard.

"Incendio!" I cried. A serpent style fire just like Bellatrix's flew out of my wand and nearly hit her full on. "Protego!" She cried, and there was a furious tone in her voice. She was finished playing around.

"Accio Wand!" She cried, staring at me. I tried to hang on, but it nearly broke a finger flying from my tightly clenched hand. It flew up into the air and Bellatrix caught it.

"Arthur do something!" Mrs. Weasley cried out. Arthur ran into the house. Whether to go get Dumbledore, or go get an object, I knew not. But I had no time. Bellatrix strode forward and we were suddenly toe to toe. She reached out, and I bristled when she stroked my hair.

"I can't believe it." She whispered. "The Dark Lord's blood runs through your veins. Your beautiful. Your intelligent. Your terrific at magic. Why, with an actually competent teacher, you'd be right on your way to the second most powerful sorcerer in the world."

"Your not going to say that Voldemort is the first, are you?" I snarled at her. Ignoring my rude tone, she started to touch my face. She held it together with two of her pale hands, they were shaking. "Why, of all people, you should be the one to call him by his name. Yes. He will reward me, when he finds out that I, have took it upon myself to retrieve you."

Mrs. Weasley, was snarling. Her hand on Ron's shoulder was cutting into his skin with her nails, making him wince.

"You mean, it wasn't him that ordered me to be retrieved?" I smiled, and Bellatrix smirked. Her eyes flickered up at the Weasley's borrow. "Oh no. It was me. I decided to get a few friends together," She waved carelessly to the men crowded around her. "And then I decided to find you."

"How did you find me?" I snapped, narrowing my eyes. Maybe, just maybe, if I could keep them talking until Mr. Weasley got back, he would have Dumbledore with him. Maybe all hope isn't lost.

"Well, we went out on a whim, you see. I thought that Dumbledore would send you with one of the order. And it's only common knowledge that the Weasel Blood traitors were side by side with Dumbledore and his views. I decided to have a friend come here, to where we knew you lived. And it only proved that there was a Fidelus charm at the works when we scanned the land and couldn't find a hint of the house. And this one," She pointed to a taller and burly man with a mask.

"Slipped some truth telling potion to Mr. Blood traitor Weasley at work one day." Bellatrix smiled sweetly. Molly clutched her throat in shock. "You… You-!" She started furiously.

Whatever Bellatrix was, was drowned out by the Death Eaters yells. Dumbledore had just ran out the front door towards us. I turned around, smirking triumphantly. But froze. Bellatrix was leaning down, her face close to me. Her hands moved from my hair to my right arm, and I knew at once what she was about to do. I saw it all happen in slow motion. Dumbledore pointed his wand at the shield, Bellatrix turned and spun around, bringing me with her, and a large and bright green light shot out of Dumbledore's wand. The shield was breaking down. But it was too late. My feet were lifting from the ground. She had pushed me into a large death eater. He wasn't human.

"Nice to meet you." He said sarcastically. "Fenir Greyback." He added. He turned and then everything was black smoke. My feet left the ground and then we were spiraling around. "Ahhh!" I screamed. I was too weak, and without my wand, I was useless. We were heading for the burrow. I could hear people on the ground screaming. Fenir had a wand. One hand was hooked around my waist, keeping me from falling, and the other was wrapped around a wand. We broke through a window. And then there was fire. I could tell that the other death eaters had crashed through the house. Fire. They were going to burn it down.

"Ahhh!" I screamed as we excited through another window, shattering as we moved. It felt as if we were going a mile a minute. How could he be so coordinated spiraling around like this? Does it take practice?

He landed on the floor, dropping me at once. Softly, they all fell onto the floor in a interesting circular form. We were on the outskirts of the cornfield. I couldn't see the burrow, but I was sure we were close.

Bellatrix leaned down and grabbed my arm. "Oh, she looks disappointed. Did you think we were going to be so easily fooled? Did you think you were safe when Dumbledore came into the picture?" She cackled cruelly. I grit my teeth, full of fright. With a loud pop, I was flying around. This was Apparation. I felt like I was being pulled through a straw. Bella's hand, vice like on mine, was impossible to ditch. When we landed, I fell onto the floor. I gripped my head tightly. "Ah!" I groaned.

"You get used to it." She commented, smiling widely. Slowly, the others joined her, and then I was thrown to my feet. I stumbled a little, but then she steered me down the marble path. "Where are we?"

"Malfoy Manor." She smiled. So, this is Draco's house. It was a large Mansion. If only I was here on normal circumstances. She passed effortlessly through the gate and pulled me in after her. She was walking fast. As if she was a child who was eager to be praised for doing something great.

"Now. Let's go about this nicely. You fell in some mud. I'll clean you up. And then I'll call him." She said.

"How?" I asked angrily. She opened the door and we all shuffled in. "With the dark mark. Ooh, I want you to meet the family. Draco!" Bellatrix called out. She had just pushed me into the living room, and a figure on the couch stood up. It was Draco, half asleep. "Yes-!" His eyes snapped open at the sight of me.

"Yes, your surprise. I'm going to need introductions." She said. She walked forward and grabbed Draco's arm, moving him closer. "Draco, this is Juliunna. Juliunna, this is Draco." She smiled. Draco raised a cruel eyebrow at me, but nonetheless shook my hand. "Hello." He said stiffly.

"Cissy!" Bellatrix yelled. "I'm coming. I'm coming. The familiar voice of Narcissa Malfoy said. The two of them walked in the room and stopped at the sight of me.

"What is this?" Narcissa asked.

"It's the Dark Lord's daughter!" Bellatrix squealed. She pointed her wand at me and I felt the sensation of cold wind swirling down my back. When it stopped, I let out a deep breath. "All nice and shiny and new. Just in time for the Dark Lord." She smiled .Narcissa hurried over to Draco, and the two of them sat down.

"Oh Yay." I sighed sarcastically. "Exactly!" She smiled, and roughly pushed me into a red armchair and ripped up her black dress sleeve. The black inkling tattoo of a snake wrapped around a skull was on her forearm. She lifted up her hand and pressed into the tattoo. Immediately, I almost cried out with pain.. There was a burning sensation on my neck from my own Dark Mark, and the others in the room winced too. But only slightly.

It was complete silence in the room. I was frowning and had curled up in fear. How was this meeting going to go down? The others had sauntered off at Bella's orders, leaving the Malfoy family, Bellatrix, and I standing here. When there was at last a loud popping sound, I jumped. A pair of footsteps were heard, but I also heard the loud hissing of a snake. "You called." He said when he entered. I turned around and faced the other room. I wish I hadn't followed Harry into the maze. I wish I was still at the borrow.

"Master, the girl." Bellatrix started. I looked up, and met Voldemort's eyes. They were red. I wrapped my arm around my knees and buried my head down.

"What about her?" He asked lazily.

"She is Juliunna. Your daughter, my lord." Bellatrix added. I heard him move. In my mind, I could see him jet his head towards me, looking surprised. I heard loud hissing, and my skin bristled. Nagini, the snake, was now wrapping herself around the bottom of the arm chair.

"Look at me." Lord Voldemort said. I bristled again. I didn't want to, but it would only cause me trouble to ignore him. I looked up at him, my eyes narrowed softly. He didn't smile, nor did he show any hint of recognition, or emotion. "Yes, it is her. Well, Bella, I think you deserve a prize of your choice." Lord Voldemort said. Bellatrix looked absolutely gleeful.

"My Lord, could I help assist in raising the girl?!" She asked, and my jaw drop. Voldemort actually did smile this time. He looked inhuman, but Bellatrix nearly swooned.

"Of course. I suppose she does need a motherly figure in her life."

"And great inspiration she'll be." I muttered, crossing my arms. Voldemort looked back to me. "Who has currently been in watch of you?"

"Hogwarts. And then the Weasleys." I said with a shrug. He nodded. "Well, there job was to keep you from me. Bella, do you think they deserve any rewards?" He said, and Bellatrix laughed. "I think they deserve a few Unforgivables, my Lord." She smiled. Is she in love with him or something?

"Yes. They didn't even do a good job, if she's here now. They will get what's coming to them eventually."

I was bursting to say that he was going to bite the dust at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but held it back.

"This is an impressive feat Bella. I must admit." He said, and Bellatrix shone with pride, going slightly pink in the face.

"It's not as if she actually did something worthwhile." I grumbled. Nagini moved from her spot on the floor and started to slither up on the couch. I bit my tongue to keep from crying out. Her teeth were large and sharp, very deadly.

"What?!" I asked it, but it continued on as if it hadn't heard me. I was about to roll my eyes, when she snapped back. "What?!"

"Oh my goodness I can talk to serpents." I said, and then hopped off the couch. "So yeah, I need a drink."

Voldemort held up a hand to silence me, and then looked to Draco. "Draco, get her a drink." He hissed, and Draco stood up fast. He immediately walked off to the kitchen, and to my anger, I had to sit down.

"I want you in my sight."

"Wise choice, my lord. She did not come willingly." Bellatrix said, and I groaned.

"Oh no guys, because there's nothing I like more then being in this position. Kidnapped and restricted." I said loudly. Voldemort seemed to be thinking for a while.

"Hmm. She will need binding spells."

"What?!" I snapped, sitting up.

"You will obviously run at the first chance-!"

"No I won't!" I snapped. "I… I love it here!" I said with gritted teeth, but he smirked and turned to Bellatrix. "I will keep her here for a day or two. I need to put up some spells around my own manor that will confine her to the house."

I'm never going to get out of that place! I growled and leaned down. I'll just have to escape before I'm moved.

"Shall I place the usual spells around her bedroom?" Bellatrix asked. And Voldemort nodded. "Yes. And I believe that a non apparition spell should be placed around the house. No one in or out." Narcissa stood up, realizing he was talking to her. Draco walked in and, avoiding my eye, handing me a cup of ice tea. He then promptly sat down again.

"And…" He looked to Draco, and seemed to be thinking hard. "I want you to sit with her and make sure she doesn't escape." He said. Draco nodded, looking a little paler then usual at being addressed by Lord Voldemort himself.

"Of course." He said.

"If she escapes under your twenty four hour watch," He started. Nagini gave up trying to climb onto my lap and stated to curl around the chair again. "Then I will feed you to my snake." At these words, Nagini snickered. I actually heard her laugh. Seems I got the family tradition of Parcel Tongue.

"Yes, My Lord." He said, and he looked at me awkwardly.

"Yes, take her now. I have work to do." He said, waving the two of us off. Draco walked forward and gripped my arm hard. Without looking at his mother, who returned the favor by not looking at him either, and trying not to walk too fast or too slow, he walked me to the staircase and when were out of sight, took the stairs two at a time. "Come." He said, gritting his teeth. And so I followed him up the stairs, expecting that I was in trouble.

Though I have no idea _(cough- Lack of owls and or communication)_ why he'd me mad.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

**Normal Pov**

Juliunna smiled and gawked at everything they passed. When they reached the door, she smiled at the large _**'DM'**_, engraved with snake totems. Draco lightly pushed her into his bedroom, shutting and locking the door behind him. Juliunna took a quick moment to admire the room. There was a magnificent four poster green, silver and black bed against the wall, sitting on a black marble floor. There were jars of shiny magical substances glowing on the shelves. There was a bookshelf, a wall to floor mirror closet, and magazines thrown onto the floor. He strode forward and grabbed them up in a pile. She caught sight of a blushing witch on one, right before he threw them unceremoniously into his closet. She could see many pristine and expensive looking robes and outfits before he slammed the sliding french mirrors shut.

"Why didn't you owl me? At least let me know you were okay?" He asked. He turned around and strode forward. Juliunna flinched, thinking he was going to lash out at her, but her grabbed her by the small of her back and pulled her to him, hugging her tightly. She hugged him back. "I wasn't allowed to." She said. He pulled back and pressed a small kiss on her cheek.

"How did they find you?"

"Bellatrix."

"Damn." He said, shaking his head. He looked at the window, letting go of her fully. "You have to get out while you're here. If you get to his mansion, and he's put all those protective spells on your room, you'll never get out."

"I know… But I can't go." She sighed. They both walked over to his bed and sat facing the window. They could see the large, glowing bright moon, shining amongst the electric blue sky. "Well of course you have to go."

"He'll kill you." Juliunna said in outrage. He held up his hands in a warning to be quiet.

"I'll find a way to stay safe." He said.

"Come with me." She said suddenly, sitting up straight. He laughed. "What?"

"You heard me." She said, putting her hands on his shoulder.

"I can't. I can get you back to the Weasley's, or Hogwarts, or whatever. But I have to stay with my mother."

"She can come with us. Think about Draco, we're not safe here. If I leave under your watch, he'll either kill, or try to physically maim you. And he'll probably hurt your mother. We could run away!"

"Are you kidding me? He'll catch us." Draco said, and exhaled deeply. "I have to stay here. I'll take my punishment."

"No! I won't let you." She said. Draco opened his mouth to argue, but then she had an idea.

"What if I escape when I'm not on your watch?" She asked, smiling suddenly. Draco looked up. "What?"

"We'd have to plan it exactly. What if you ask Bellatrix to take me around the garden tomorrow-! No, let's confund her! Make her think that she tried to take me into town and I ran away."

"Bloody brilliant." Draco smirked. He threw an arm around her shoulder and rubbed the top of her head affectionately.

"I've never tried one before, have you ever done a memory charm?" Juliunna asked Draco. "We could plant the fake plan in Bellatrix's mind so when she goes to the Dark Lord, he sees that memory!" She said excitedly. Slowly, the smile faded from Draco's face.

"Brilliant. But there's one problem." Draco said. "I've never done a memory charm before, but that's not the real problem. What if the Dark Lord tries to use his all knowing power against me and sees me and you planning this, it's gonna get really bad. Aunt Bella, she's been teaching me Occumalacy and all, but I don't think I could keep him out." Draco whispered. Juliunna sighed. "Where's your wand?"

"Why?"

"I have to erase your memory of this. I'll go about the plan by myself. It's better that you have no farther part in this." She said with a smile. Draco nodded, and passed her his wand. "Alright, but be careful with it." He said.

"I will." She laughed. She took it carefully in her hands and pointed at Draco's nose. "Your lucky. The Weasley Twins had a book of jinks and charms that students aren't allowed to use hidden in their closet. I found it and started practicing some of the spells in there. This was one of them. "Obliviate." She whispered. The tip of his wand grew bright green and his eyes were wiped blank of all emotion. She was holding her breath, thinking as hard as she could about what she specifically wanted him to remember, and what she specifically wanted him to forget. When the green light went out completely, he blinked. She dropped the wand with a hopeful smile. "Did it work?"

"Did what work? And why do you have my wand. It was just in my pocket." He said. He pulled the wand out of her grip and smiled when she leaned forward, pressing her lips to his. "Mmm. Seriously, don't touch my wand. It's mine." He said, and she fell back with a laugh. She laid down on his pillow and folded her arms behind her head. Draco laid down on his stomach next to her, his eyes darting to the pillow she was laying on. Her eyes narrowed. Slowly, without releasing her eye contact with him, she reached under his pillow and groped for two seconds.

"What is it?" She asked. Her hands had just closed on what was undeniably a magazine. "Um… It's…" He drawled out. She pulled it out and balanced the magazine on her knees. She looked at the moving with on the cover. "Scarlet woman, is what Mrs. Weasley would've called her. Let's see, no shirt, a lot of lace, provocative facial expressions, no clothes, ooh, let's check out her friends." Juliunna said, opening the magazine. Draco buried his face in his hands, his face burning bright.

…

…

…

"Wow." She said.

'It's not mine, it's a friend's. They left it here the last time they were here." Draco said quickly, looking up. "Yep." She said. She threw the magazine hard across the room, and they could hear the sound of quiet woman squeals.

"Is that what you do up here all day?" She chuckled.

"No." He insisted, sitting up with a scared look.

"Then what do you do?"

"Read. Go to Diagon Alley. Tend to the garden. Tons of things. And then there's the swimming pool and library-!"

"You have a library." Juliunna smiled.

"Yeah." He shrugged.

"You have to take me-!"

He threw his arms over her waist before she could fully jump up, making her frown. "No, wait till tomorrow. The Dark Lord's probably still down there." He whispered fearfully. She sighed and sat back down.

"Anyway, tell me, has anything new happened?" She asked.

"Like what?"

"Daily Prophet type of news, stuff like that?"

His face fell. "I've got news." He said heavily. She frowned. "What is it?"

"My dad is in Azkaban." He said.

"What? Why?"

"He was caught at the Ministry. And then there was the fact that Potter told them everything. The evidence was too much. I don't know if you saw it in the Prophet, but me and mom left the trial in the middle. We couldn't stand it." He said with a sigh.

"Oh." She sighed. She leaned down and pulled his head onto her lap. "I'm sorry to hear that Draco. He was pretty nice. Well, when he wasn't trying to hand me over to the friggen Dark Lord. Hey, quick question, when a relative is in Azkaban, do you have visits?"

"Yes, your allowed one visit per month on visiting day." Draco sighed. "Though you can owl them every week on Monday."

"Cool, I guess." She murmured.

"Hey, do you mind if I practice a Confundus charm on you?" She asked with a smile. "What?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." She said with small shrug.

"Oh, okay, where's your wand?" He asked, pulling himself to a stand.

"Auntie Bella has it in her clutches!" Juliunna squealed excitedly.

"Oh. Well you can't cast a Confundus charm without a wand."

"Can I borrow yours?" She asked with a smile. Draco smiled at her, raised his hand, and placed it softly on her shoulder. "No."

"What?!" She snapped.

"You heard me. I trust you, but…It doesn't feel right just handing it over to you."

She lunged over him and thrust her hand into his pocket, grabbing the wand. He pushed her off.

"No!" He snapped, but she already had it.

"Confundo!" She snapped, pointing Draco's wand in his face. A small puff of blue light emitted from the wand tip, and Draco's eyes looked blank.

"Oh no. If you go down there looking like that, we'll get caught. Look happy." She ordered him. His lips stretched into a smile.

"Draco! Come down here now!" Juliunna heard. Bellatrix was shouting from downstairs.

"Okay, let's try this real quick. You need to blink once, and when you do, your eyes will show me the emotion of happiness. Bright and glossy. Come on." She said. Immediately, he blinked, and she smiled. "There we go. I want you to go downstairs to where Auntie Bella is, Draco. If she isn't down there, then go and find her in the house. If the Dark Lord is with her, you will quietly get the wand without anyone else knowing. And then you will just come back upstairs without talking to her. If he isn't, and if Aunt Bella is either alone or with your mother, you will ask her if you can hold onto my wand. If she doesn't oblige, you are allowed to stun her. You do not take no for an answer. Just keep stunning her until she's either hit or obliges. Bring me my wand Draco Malfoy. Nod once to show me that you understand exactly what I'm asking you to do." I said. In robotic moves, Draco nodded once. "Here's your wand." I said with a smile. I placed his long wand in his hand, and he climbed out from underneath my grip. He walked to the door, opened it, and walked out in a slow march. Draco was obviously about to be explained more rules or something by Bellatrix. Immediately, I ran to the window. I opened it softly, and looked over.

A grin spread over my face.

There was a wooden, easily acceptable white fence stretching from the window all the way to the yard. The kind you see in old movies. There were beautiful flowers growing all along the gate. If I could just reach the ground, I could run to the iron gate that stretched all along the property. I could then make it to the hedges. They wouldn't be able to catch me. But there's no telling how close I am to the street. Just the place to where Bellatrix and I apperated to, the view I could see on the opposite side of the house, it felt like half a mile away. If I could make it to the street…

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry was stranded after leading the Dursleys, and had his wand out… Sirius appeared. And when Harry raised his wand to defend himself, he fell back. The motion of his wand moving in the air while he was standing on the side of the street, flagged the Knight Bus down. I'd need a wand to flag it down. If I could just make it a good distant away, to where the Knight Bus is… I could make it.

But I looked to the door, and realized I couldn't leave Draco like this. I'd just have to make sure Draco and Narcissa was safe from Lord Voldemort's fury. I walked to the bedroom door and threw it open. I ran down the magnificent stairs and upon reaching the first floor, stopped. Draco was facing Lord Voldemort.

"Idiot boy. Do you hear me?" He said. Bellatrix was standing against the wall, holding back a white faced Narcissa. Draco didn't answer.

"Maybe the cruciatus curse should… She confunded you, didn't she?" Voldemort whispered. I leaned backwards a little so that I was completely unseen.

"What?" Bellatrix said, and I could hear her stomped over to Draco. I peeked a little, and I could see her grabbing Draco's face, pulling him this way and that. The Dark Lord turned to Narcissa and started to question her about her confidents in Draco's abilities to watch over me. If confounding him would help me escape any easier. To my surprise, Draco's hand went into Bellatrix's pocket and pulled out my wand. He then slipped it into his own pocket, and maintained his act of a robot.

"One little test." Voldemort said with a shrug. He pointed his wand at Draco. Draco turned around, and with a slow trudge, started to walk towards me. I began to backpedal silently up the stairs. "Crucio."

Draco didn't falter in his slow trudge.

"He's confunded. Bella go check on her."

That was all I had to hear. I turned around and ran up the stairs as quietly as I could. When I reached the bedroom door, I walked inside and left the door open. Wincing, I watched Draco walk in nearly seconds later. I grabbed his wand out of his hand and pointed it at him.

"Confundoff!" I whispered quickly. He blinked. "What did I tell you about using my wand-!"

I heard Bellatrix on the stairs. I reached forward and gripped his face hard. "Mmm!" I pulled him close and began kissing him. With one foot, I kicked the door shut.

"Shush. She's coming." I whispered. I kissed him harder and pulled him away from the door. When it opened, I tried not to hear the loud guffaw from Bellatrix. Seconds later, she shut the door again, and I let go of Draco.

"Okay, here's my chance. I have to go." I whispered.

"What? But-!"

"The Dark Lord told Bella to call you down, obviously. He'll blame it on her." She said.

"And what if he decides to blame me?"

"For getting confunded?"

"Yes… You confunded me?!" He snapped, and Juliunna chuckled slyly. "Yes."

"You… Do you even have a plan?" He snapped.

_ Make it to the street, flag down the Knight Bus, and get to Hogwarts. But I can't tell you that._

"Yes." She said.

"Fine." He sighed. She walked to the window and leaned over. "Maybe I can get to the-!"

She was blown back off her feet. "Son of a-!"

"Oh my goodness. I forgot. Bella must have placed a spell that would have made it impossible to climb out the window." He said with a small smile. Juliunna stood up angrily, rubbing her elbows. "Oh, thanks for telling me that."

**Juliunna Pov**

I heard loud footsteps. Draco grabbed me around the middle and picked me up, dropping me on the bed. He sat down at the desk chair and turned to look at me with a smile. The door opened wide.

"I have decided," Lord Voldemort said. He was walking forward and into the room, alone. "That you will be returned."

"What? Really?" I stood up with a hopeful look on my face.

"For now." He said, smirking. I frowned. "What?"

"I'm busy. Very busy as I attempt to take over the Ministry of Magic, the Wizarding World, and kill Harry Potter. I know it doesn't seem right, but I don't have time to be a father now. Bellatrix should have asked me first. I know this now. But know this, young one. I will give you this privilege. Go back home to your Weasley's for now, but I will send my men to collect you when I take over the Ministry of Magic. From then on, you will live with me." He said. Draco was looking between us, curious.

"Why don't you just keep me here?" I asked, confused.

"Trust me when I say, I know what I'm doing." He said his eye narrowing into slits, and then chuckled deeply. I shivered. "It's better to kill two birds with one stone."

"Your gonna kill me?!" I said, backing up.

"No." He sighed. "To kill two birds with one stone, is to get two things done with one job-!"

"I know what it means."

"Apparently you didn't."

"Yes but your Lord Voldemort, you said kill and I instantly thought 'hey, I don't want to die'!"

"Yes."

What are you going to do with the Weasleys?"

"Well I was mainly thinking about Potter."

"Oh okay. It seems your doomed to kill him anyway." I said with a shrug. He rolled his eyes.

"How am I supposed to get there?" I asked. "Malfoy," Voldemort snarled. Draco turned to her. "Um yeah?" He asked.

"Assist her in flooing. Go and grab the Floo Powder." He said. Draco walked passed us and nearly ran when he hit the hall. I sighed with disappointment.

"Yes, he's charming." Voldemort said sarcastically. "Well, I'll see you next summer."

"Next summer?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. You have until then. Goodbye." He said.

"Bye." I said awkwardly, watching him disappear out the door. I breathed when he left the room, and Draco came back with in, shivering. He was clutching a large bowl of floo powder as he shut the door. He let out a deep breath.

"So, your free."

"Yes. I better get back home. Mrs. Weasley is probably still in hysterics." I sighed. Draco moved forward and wrapped one around me. "Alright." He sighed. He pressed his lips to mine softly. I placed my hands on either side of his face, kissing him back softly. The hand still holding the floo powder pressed the bowl into my lower back, with his other hand, he wound his fingers into my hair.

"Wait. Maybe you don't have to go right now." He said when we parted. I laughed.

"See you at school Dray." I smiled widely. He nodded with a small sigh. "Yeah."

"Oh," I said. "I have to tell you, before you find out from someone else." I said, taking a handful of floo powder. I walked over to the fireplace against the wall, and turned around.

"What is it?"

"I kissed Ron… Repeatedly."

He stared at me.

"Well, it didn't mean anything to me. In fact, you're a much better kisser. So, yeah… The burrow." I shouted, throwing down the powder. Green flames roared up.

"How could you?" He said hoarsely. I sighed. "Well Draco, technique I didn't do anything wrong. You never asked me to be your girlfriend."

"I thought you were okay with an outspoken relationship?!" He snapped.

"As I said Draco, I love Ron. But I love him like a sibling."

"You make out with your siblings?!"

"Of course not! I was teaching him to kiss out of pity!" I shrugged. The flames were flickering. I had to get in.

"Promise me you won't do it again!" Draco snapped.

"Of course." I called back with a smile.

"Well alright. Goodbye." He said grimly, waving at me.

"Goodbye!" I called back. I fell backwards, became covered in green flames, and I was suddenly spinning around. I fell into the Weasley's kitchen. Mrs. Weasley was sitting at the kitchen, staring at the clock in front of her, looking stricken with guilt. "Mrs. Weasley-!"

"Argh!" She cried out, standing up. Her eyes widened with shock as she stared at me. "What? Oh my. She's back!" She yelled out. She ran forward as I stood up, and she accidentally knocked over a chair. She wrapped her arms around me and lifted me off the floor.

"Oh my goodness. How'd you get away? Oh its all my fault! I should have kept a tighter hold on you! I should have asked Dumbledore how to take down the shield when he first put it up-!"

"There was nothing you could do." I whispered feverishly to her. She put me down with a sniffle.

"Your were brilliant Mrs. Weasley. It wasn't any of our faults. Well, it was Bellatrix's. But that's beside the point."

"Sit down. I'll make you a hot beverage, and then you'll tell me-!" I heard the sound of many feet on the stairs, thundering downstairs. "Well us, what happened from the second you left and to the second you arrive." Mrs. Weasley picked up the chair he had knocked over and placed it upwards. I sat down in it and balanced my chin in my hand.

"Do you have hot chocolate?" I asked with a sigh. "Yes, of course dear." Molly said. All of the Weasleys, Harry, and Remus and Tonks walked in. Everyone burst into noises of shock and surprise.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

**Normal Pov**

"Fought em all off, eh?" Ron said, grabbing my neck in a headlock. He rubbed his fist back and fourth across my skull, making Mrs. Weasley hiss. "Let her go Ron. She's been through a lot."

"How did you escape?" Ginny said, striding forward. She grabbed my shirt and pulled the shoulder pieces away, exposing my neck and shoulders. "Mum, can you get the Dark mark off her?"

**Normal Pov**

"Most likely no." Juliunna answered. "This is very powerful, and very dark magic. It's permanent." **(A/N: I guess if you used a severing charm and then healed it with dittany. But no. I'm pretty sure it'd just grow back. No matter how faded.)**

"She's right." Molly sighed. "Unless you want me to cut off the skin underneath it-!"

"I'll live with it." Juliunna said and pulled her shirt back right. Arthur, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione sat down at the table. Remus and Tonks sat down too, and Molly returned to the table, clutching a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. "So, what happened?" Molly said, and Juliunna sighed.

":Not much. The death eaters took me to the outskirts of the corn field," Juliunna started, and then took a sip of the hot chocolate.

"What happened next?!" Ron snapped, slamming his fists on the table. Juliunna nearly dropped the cup, and placed it down. "Give me a minute Ron."

"Shut up!" Hermione snapped at Ron, stomping on his foot. "Continue please?"

"Bellatrix took me to…" Juliunna stopped. It would ruin the story if Narcissa and Draco were thrown in Azkaban. And Bellatrix can't be caught without the Malfoy's being imprisoned for helping an escaped convict. "They took me to a house. Then she called the Dark Lord." Juliunna said, and Ginny's eyes widened.

"Did you recognize the house?" Tonks said.

"No. Not at all." Juliunna said with a sigh.

"Any names?"

"Fenir Greyback." Juliunna said, thinking. Remus's face flashed. "He was the death eater in the field that went all shadowy and brought me to the cornfield. Well, when we apperated to the house, Voldemort was going to keep me locked up there for a day or two, while he put binding spells around his own manor for me." She said, shaking her head slowly.

"Whoa. How'd you escape?"

"I'm getting to it Ron! Anyway, I was making plans about leaving before he came to retrieve me officially. Because I knew that if I was put under his watch, I would never escape. But just two minutes before I showed up here, he came to me and told me some stuff." Juliunna said excitedly. Harry leaned forward. "What'd he tell you?"

"He told me he was really busy. Trying to take over the Ministry and kill Harry, and become stronger and stuff. And he said that this was happening all too suddenly. He doesn't have time to be a father yet. But he did warn me. He's going to come and get me next summer, after he's in complete control of the Ministry. He said I could live without him until he sends out his Death Eaters for me." Juliunna said with a smile.

"… Next summer?" Ron whispered.

"Doesn't have time to be a father?! Why, he doesn't have the environment to be a father?!" Molly snapped at no one in particular.

"Why didn't he just keep you with Bellatrix?" Harry asked. "Or someone else?"

"He said he was going to kill two birds with one stone. That means to get two things done in one swoop. I'm sure that's his plan. It has something to do with you Harry." Juliunna said. Harry stared at her. "Voldemort said that?"

"No… Well he didn't mention you exactly. But I knew what he was talking about. You got to think about these things Harry." Juliunna said with a small shrug, laughing.

"… Do you really trust what You Know Who said? About coming next year?" Ron said. "What if he's just trying to trick you so you don't see it coming?"

"I trust that what Voldemort said is true. And I bet Dumbledore would back me up." Juliunna smirked, her voice rather hardened. She looked around. "Um yeah, last time I was here…. Wasn't the house on fire? I mean, I'm pretty sure it was?" She asked, frowning.

"Oh, yeah. We put it out pretty fast. Especially with Dumbledore here." Tonks said, striding forward. She rubbed Juliunna's head softly, making Juliunna smile.

"Oh, we're just so glad your okay." Molly sniffed. She patted Juliunna's hand, and Juliunna took a large sip of hot chocolate.

"Were you scared?" Ginny asked.

"Ginny please, I really don't think she wants to relieve it. She's told us what we needed to know. The basics." Molly said. Juliunna sighed.

"To be honest, for a few seconds, I was afraid. I still am, in a special way. You know, I'm pretty sure that when I live with him, his favorite form of discipline is going to be the Cruciatus Curse." Juliunna said with a small shiver. "But anyway, can I go to bed? No Mrs. Weasley, I was taken at dinner time. I already ate!" She warned her, as Mrs. Weasley's eyes had flickered towards the refrigerator.

"Are you sure dear?"

"Yes. I'm really tired, so can I go upstairs?" She asked with a sigh.

"Yes. Harry, are you still going to room with Juliunna?"

"Yeah sure." Harry shrugged. He leaned towards Hermione and Ron and whispered to them some questions that he didn't want to ask Juliunna in front of Mrs. Weasley.

"Alright. Are we going to Diagon Alley soon? I'd like to get the books I'm required to get for my OWLs." Juliunna sighed. "Yes. We can go soon." Mrs. Weasley said. All eyes were on Juliunna as she left the room, clutching the mug and yawning.

"Alright. I believe that everyone should go up to bed. Harry, are you sure you don't want to room with Ron?" Mrs. Weasley said. Harry didn't want to say it, but there was no way they were going to fit his bed in with Ron's. Not with all the clutter and objects and furniture.

"Mrs. Weasley please, I'm sure I'm fine." He said with a wide smile.

**…**

Juliunna and Ginny were chatting in the living room softly, and listening to Hermione flounder Mrs. Weasley about the OWL's. "There arriving today." Juliunna croaked, letting her head fall back and lay on the arm chair. "Are you okay? You don't look so good." Ginny said. Juliunna was shivering under the blanket she had dragged from her room. There were beads of sweat on her forehead, and she had a weak look in her eyes as her head nodded off the chair.

"No. I…" She stopped, pursing her lips together. "Ugh. No. I think I have the flu." She said, barely more then a whisper. Hermione squealed from the next room.

"Mum!" Ginny shouted. "Juliunna's sick!"

"Not that much." Juliunna said. Her eyes shut, and then she was silent and asleep on the couch. Molly came into the room a moment later, and tsked as she saw Juliunna on the couch.

"Ginny, do you know if she ate anything?"

"I… I don't think so. She must have had a fever fudge. She looked completely fine earlier today."

"Fever Fudge?"

"One of Fred and George's-!"

"I'll be right back!" Molly grumbled.

…

Both Harry and Juliunna made sure to remain within the confines of the Burrow's garden over the next few weeks. They spent most of their days playing two times three sided Quidditch in the Weasleys' orchard, (Harry and Hermione against Ron, Juliunna, and Ginny (and Shuffle);) Hermione was dreadful and Ginny good and to Harry's surprise, Juliunna was best of the girls within a week (With training sessions between Ginny, Ron, and Harry, so they were reasonably well matched) and their evenings were spent eating triple helpings of everything Mrs. Weasley put in front of them.

It would have been a happy, peaceful holiday from then on, had it not been for the stones of disappearances, odd accidents, even of deaths now appearing almost daily in the Prophet. Sometimes Bill and Mr. Weasley brought home news before it even reached the paper. To Mrs. Weasley's displeasure, Harry's sixteenth birthday celebrations were marred by grisly tidings brought to the party by Remus Lupin, who was looking gaunt and grim, his brown hair streaked liberally with gray, his clothes more ragged and patched than ever.

"There have been another couple of dementor attacks," He announced, as Mrs. Weasley passed him a large slice of birthday cake. "And they've found Igor Karkaroff's body in a shack up north." He said, making Juliunna gasp. "The Dark Mark had been set over it — well, frankly, I'm surprised he stayed alive for even a year after deserting the Death Eaters; Sirius's brother, Regulas, only managed a few days as far as I can remember."

"Yes, well," said Mrs. Weasley, frowning, "Perhaps we should talk about something diff—"

"Did you hear about Florean Fortescue, Remus?" asked Bill, who was being plied with wine by Fleur. "The man who ran-!"

"- The ice-cream place in Diagon Alley?" Harry interrupted, with an unpleasant, hollow sensation in the pit of his stomach. "He used to give me free ice creams. What's happened to him?"

"Dragged off, by the look of his place."

"Aww." Juliunna sighed.

"Why?" asked Ron, while Mrs. Weasley pointedly glared at Bill.

"Who knows? He must've upset them somehow. He was a good man, Florean."

"Talking of Diagon Alley," said Mr. Weasley, "looks like Ollivanders gone too."

"The wand maker?" said Ginny, looking startled.

"That's the one. Shop's empty. No sign of a struggle. No one knows whether he left voluntarily or was kidnapped."

"But wands — what'll people do for wands?" Juliunna asked.

"They'll make do with other makers," said Lupin. "But Ollivanders was the best, and if the other side have got him it's not so good for us."

The day after this rather gloomy birthday tea, their letters and booklists arrived from Hogwarts. Harry's and Juliunna's included a surprise: he had been made Quidditch Captain.

"That gives you equal status with prefects!" cried Hermione happily. "You can use our special bathroom now and everything!" She said, and everyone grinned, looking to Juliunna. Two owls, one carrying her envelope from Hogwarts, and one carrying a regular envelope, had arrived for her. She grabbed the Hogwarts one first.

"Come on, I'm teaching a class. I'm teaching a class. I'm teaching a class." She repeatedly said as she opened her envelope. Everyone watched her as she took out two important looking papers first. "Heh… Professor Snape obviously has it out for me. And… yes. More responsibilities on top of studying. Apparently this stuff is really stressful, from what I've heard."

"What is it?" Hermione asked, frowning.

"He made me Captain of the sports team, and a prefect!" Juliunna said, crossing her arms. "Its not fair." She said as the table interrupted into applause.

"That's cool." Harry told her with a chuckle. "Not really." She said, reaching for the letter attached to the frightened owl. She opened it.

And stared.

"What's wrong?" Mrs. Weasley chuckled, shuffling some more bacon onto her plate.

"Well… This explains why I'm both." Juliunna sighed. "Ahem. He told Snape to give me these things as a present from him." Juliunna said, placing the letter down. "And that explains why your so scared." Juliunna said, petting the soft owl. It hooted once, and then flew out of the room, followed by the other Hogwarts owls.

"What? Who told Snape?" Bill asked.

"Oh, my father just sent me a letter wishing me good tidings. He said he expects me to do great things at Hogwarts. And he wants me to show Slytherin house the respect it deserves." Juliunna smiled softly. "Well, Salazar Slytherin himself, of course. He obviously didn't hear about all the studying I was going to be doing." Juliunna said with a sigh. The room went silent.

"He knows where we live." Mrs. Weasley said, peering out the window, as if expecting the Dark Lord to be strolling up the orchard. "How dare he?"

"He knows a lot, and he more then dares. But he said he wasn't going to see me until next year. And I believe him." Juliunna said with a shrug. "It's okay Mrs. Weasley. Have a seat." Juliunna said, and picked up her Hogwarts letter. "Hmm." She said, picking the Prefect and Captain Badge out of the envelope. "Do I just wear both? Or do I have to wear one at a time… You know what, do I even have to wear them?"

"You do." Hermione and Bill said. When your on your duties of course." Hermione said.

"Well, I don't suppose we can put off a trip to Diagon Alley much longer now you've got these," sighed Mrs. Weasley, looking down Ron's booklist. "We'll go on Saturday as long as your father doesn't have to go into work again. I'm not going there without him."

"Mum, d'you honestly think You-Know-Who's going to be hiding behind a bookshelf in Flourish and Blotts?" sniggered Ron. "No. But he could have his death eaters hidden behind a bookshelf in Flourish and Blotts, waiting to ambush Harry, kidnap me, and pummel anyone who gets in their way." Juliunna said nonchalantly, moving her thumb across the smooth golden badge. Ron snickered.

"Fortescue and Ollivanders went on holiday, did they?" said Mrs. Weasley, firing up at once. "If you think security's a laughing matter you can stay behind Ron, and I'll get your things myself!"

"No, I want to come, I want to see Fred and George's shop!" said Ron hastily.

"Then you just buck up your ideas, young man, before I decide you're too immature to come with us!" said Mrs. Weasley angrily, snatching up her clock, all nine hands of which were still pointing at "mortal peril," and balancing it on top of a pile of just-laundered towels. "And that goes for returning to Hogwarts as well!" She snapped.

Ron turned to stare incredulously at Harry as his mother hoisted the laundry basket and the teetering clock into her arms and stormed out of the room.

"Blimey. . . you can't even make a joke round here anymore. . . ." He said.

But Ron was careful not to be flippant about Voldemort over the next few days. Saturday dawned without any more outbursts from Mrs. Weasley, though she seemed very tense at breakfast. Bill, who would be staying at home with Fleur (much to Hermione and Ginny's pleasure), passed a full money bag across the table to Harry.

"Where's mine?" demanded Ron at once, his eyes wide.

"That's already Harry's, idiot," said Bill. "I got it out of your vault for you, Harry, because it's taking about five hours for the public to get to their gold at the moment, the goblins have tightened security so much. Two days ago Arkie Philpott had a Probity Probe stuck up his ... Well, trust me, this way's easier."

"Thanks, Bill," said Harry, pocketing his gold.

"Wait. Five hours?" Juliunna asked, looking up with horror.

"I'm afraid so, for most people." Bill said. "I would have gotten yours, but your family's vault is so old. You have to give a positive family DNA proofing test to just get in the vault. But I'm sure if you tell them who you are, they'll let you breeze pass…Or keep you there for hours." Bill said, and Juliunna's face fell. "Well you are the Dark Lord's daughter."

'"E is always so thoughtful," purred Fleur adoringly, stroking Bill's nose. Ginny mimed vomiting into her cereal behind Fleur. Harry choked over his cornflakes, and Ron thumped him on the back. Mrs. Weasley came in, turning to Juliunna. "Dumbledore just owled me. We won't have to wait as long, because he's just warned the goblins your coming."

"Good." Juliunna said. "Five hours." She muttered, rolling her eyes.

…

It was an overcast, murky day. One of the special Ministry of Magic cars, in which Harry had ridden once before, was awaiting them in the front yard when they emerged from the house, pulling on their cloaks.

"It's good Dad can get us these again," said Ron appreciatively, stretching luxuriously as the car moved smoothly away from the Burrow, Bill and Fleur waving from the kitchen window. He, Juliunna, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny were all sitting in roomy comfort in the wide backseat.

"Don't get used to it, it's only because of Harry," said Mr. Weasley over his shoulder. He and Mrs. Weasley were in front with the Ministry driver; the front passenger seat had obligingly stretched into what resembled a two-seater sofa. "He's been given top-grade security status. And we'll be joining up with additional security at the Leaky Cauldron too."

"Here you are, then," said the driver, a surprisingly short while later, speaking for the first time as he slowed in Charing Cross Road and stopped outside the Leaky Cauldron. "I'm to wait for you, any idea how long you'll be?"

"A couple of hours, I expect," said Mr. Weasley. "Ah, good, he's here!"

Harry imitated Mr. Weasley and peered through the window; his heart leapt. There were no Aurors waiting outside the inn, but instead the gigantic, black-bearded form of Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, wearing a long beaver skin coat, beaming at the sight of Harry's face and oblivious to the startled stares of passing Muggles.

"Harry!" he boomed, sweeping Harry into a bone-crushing hug the moment Harry had stepped out of the car. "Buckbeak — Witherwings, I mean — yeh should see him, Harry, he's so happy ter be back in the open air —"

"Glad he's pleased," said Harry, grinning as he massaged his ribs. "We didn't know 'security' meant you!"

"I know, jus' like old times, innit? See, the Ministry wanted ter send a bunch o' Aurors, but Dumbledore said I'd do," said Hagrid proudly, throwing out his chest and tucking his thumbs into his pockets. "Lets get goin' then — after yeh, Molly, Arthur — Ah, who's this?" Hagrid asked, looking down at Juliunna, who was hanging close to Mrs. Weasley.

"That's Juliunna. Voldemort's daughter." Ginny whispered.

"Ah, Dumbledore did say she'd be here." Hagrid said. He waved shyly to Juliunna, but she wasn't paying attention. She was staring at the Leaky Cauldron doors.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked her, and she jumped.

"Nothing." She said quickly. Not quite believing her, he nodded. Mrs. Weasley grabbed Juliunna's shoulder and steered her forward. "Alright everyone, stay close." She said with a tight lipped smile.

The Leaky Cauldron was, for the first time in Harry's memory, completely empty. Only Tom the landlord, wizened and toothless, remained of the old crowd. He looked up hopefully as they entered, but before he could speak, Hagrid said importantly, "Jus' passin' through today, Tom, sure yeh understand, Hogwarts business, yeh know."

Tom nodded gloomily and returned to wiping glasses; Harry, Hermione, Juliunna, Hagrid, and the Weasleys walked through the bar and out into the chilly little courtyard at the back where the dustbins stood. Hagrid raised his pink umbrella and rapped a certain brick in the wall, which opened at once to form an archway onto a winding cobbled street. They stepped through the entrance and paused, looking around.

Diagon Alley had changed. The colorful, glittering window displays of spell books, potion ingredients, and cauldrons were lost to view, hidden behind the large Ministry of Magic posters that had been pasted over them. Most of these somber purple posters carried blown-up versions of the security advice on the Ministry pamphlets that had been sent out over the summer, but others bore moving black-and-white photographs of Death Eaters known to be on the loose. Bellatrix Lestrange was sneering from the front of the nearest apothecary. A few windows were boarded up, including those of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. On the other hand, a number of shabby-looking stalls had sprung up along the street. The nearest one, which had been erected outside Flourish and Blotts, under a striped, stained awning, had a cardboard sign pinned to its front:

_**AMULETS **_

_**Effective Against Werewolves, Dementors, and Inferi! **_

A seedy-looking little wizard was rattling armfuls of silver symbols on chains at passersby.

"One for your little girl, madam?" he called at Mrs. Weasley as they passed, leering at Ginny. "Protect her pretty neck?" Juliunna and Ginny huddled together and walked faster.

"If I were on duty . . ." said Mr. Weasley, glaring angrily at the amulet seller.

"Yes, but don't go arresting anyone now, dear, we're in a hurry," said Mrs. Weasley, nervously consulting a list. "I think we'd better do Madam Malkin's first, Hermione wants new dress robes, and Ron's showing much too much ankle in his school robes, and you must need new ones too, Harry, you've grown so much — come on, everyone —"

"Molly, it doesn't make sense for all of us to go to Madam Malkin's," said Mr. Weasley. "Why don't those four go with Hagrid, and we can go to Flourish and Blotts and get everyone's school-books?" He said, patting Juliunna on the shoulder. She had just been staring awkwardly at a group of men on the other side of the streets, smirking at her.

"I don't know," said Mrs. Weasley anxiously, clearly torn between a desire to finish the shopping quickly and the wish to stick together in a pack. "Hagrid, do you think-!?"

"What about my money?" Juliunna asked.

"Oh I almost forgot. I need to get to Gringotts too. Juliunna sweetheart, can I get a piece of your hair?" Molly asked. Juliunna lightly moved her hand through her long hair, and came up with a few smooth ringlets. "Here you go. Will they let you take anything? Even if you do have my DNA?" Juliunna asked.

"Yes. And if they don't let me, I'll have Dumbledore floo over or something. It'll be alight. You go browse. That is, if Hagrid is capable of this job." Molly said, turning to Hagrid, who smiled.

"Don' fret, they'll be fine with me, Molly," said Hagrid soothingly, waving an airy hand the size of a dustbin lid. Mrs. Weasley did not look entirely convinced, but allowed the separation, scurrying off toward Flourish and Blotts with her husband and Ginny while Harry, Ron, Juliunna, Hermione, and Hagrid set off for Madam Malkin's.

"Migh' be a bit of a squeeze in there with all of us," said Hagrid, stopping outside Madam Malkin's and bending down to peer through the window. "I'll stand guard outside, all right?"

So Harry, Juliunna, Ron, and Hermione entered the little shop together. It appeared, at first glance, to be empty, but no sooner had the door swung shut behind them than they heard a familiar voice issuing from behind a rack of dress robes in spangled green and blue.

". . . not a child, in case you haven't noticed, Mother. I am perfectly capable of doing my shopping alone."

There was a clucking noise and a voice Harry recognized as that of Madam Malkin, the owner, said, "Now, dear, your mother's quite right, none of us is supposed to go wandering around on our own anymore, it's nothing to do with being a child —"

"Watch where you're sticking that pin, will you!"

Rolling her eyes, Juliunna strayed off to the clothes rack to admire some red robes.

A teenage boy with a pale, pointed face and white-blond hair appeared from behind the rack, wearing a handsome set of dark green robes that glittered with pins around the hem and the edges of the sleeves. He strode to the mirror and examined himself; it was a few moments before he noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione reflected over his shoulder. His light gray eyes narrowed.

"If you're wondering what the smell is, Mother, a Mudblood just walked in," said Draco Malfoy.

"I don't think there's any need for language like that!" said Madam Malkin, scurrying out from behind the clothes rack holding a tape measure and a wand. "And I don't want wands drawn in my shop either!" she added hastily, for a glance toward the door had shown her Harry and Ron both standing there with their wands out and pointing at Malfoy. Hermione, who was standing slightly behind them, whispered, "No, don't, honestly, it's not worth it."

"Yeah, like you'd dare do magic out of school," sneered Malfoy. "Your Dumbledore's followers through and through."

"That's quite enough!" said Madam Malkin sharply, looking over her shoulder for support. "Madam, please —"

Narcissa Malfoy strolled out from behind the clothes rack.

"Put those away," she said coldly to Harry and Ron. "If you attack my son again, I shall ensure that it is the last thing you ever do."

"Really?" said Harry, taking a step forward and gazing into the smoothly arrogant face that, for all its pallor, still resembled her sister's. He was as tall as she was now. "Going to get a few Death Eater pals to do us in, are you?"

Madam Malkin squealed and clutched at her heart.

"Really, you shouldn't accuse — dangerous thing to say — wands away, please!"

But Harry did not lower his wand. Narcissa Malfoy smiled unpleasantly.

"I see that being Dumbledore's favorite has given you a false sense of security, Harry Potter. But Dumbledore won't always be there to protect you."

Harry looked mockingly all around the shop. "Wow. . . look at that. . . he's not here now! So why not have a go? They might be able to find you a double cell in Azkaban with your loser of a husband!"

Malfoy made an angry movement toward Harry, but stumbled over his overlong robe. Ron laughed loudly.

"Don't you dare talk to my mother like that, Potter!" Malfoy snarled.

"It's all right, Draco," said Narcissa, restraining him with her thin white fingers upon his shoulder. "I expect Potter will be reunited with dear Sirius before I am reunited with Lucius." '

Harry raised his wand higher.

"Harry, no!" moaned Hermione, grabbing his arm and attempting to push it down by his side. "Think. . . . You mustn't. . . . You'll be in such trouble. ..."

"Harry!" Juliunna snapped. She stepped out from the coat rack and snatched his wand from him. "Seriously, she'd blast you away before you'd open you mouth. Hi Draco. Guess what, I'm Quidditch Captain and Slytherin Prefect!" She said with a smile. Draco smiled. "Awesome."

Madam Malkin dithered for a moment on the spot, then seemed to decide to act as though nothing was happening in the hope that it wouldn't. She bent toward Malfoy, who was still glaring at Harry.

"I think this left sleeve could come up a little bit more, dear, let me just —"

"Ouch!" bellowed Malfoy, slapping her hand away. "Watch where you're putting your pins, woman! Mother — I don't think I want these anymore —" He pulled the robes over his head and threw them onto the floor at Madam Malkin's feet.

"You're right, Draco," said Narcissa, with a contemptuous glance at Hermione, "now I know the kind of scum that shops here. . . . We'll do better at Twilfitt and Tatting's. Goodbye dear." Narcissa added to Juliunna. "Bye." She waved. As Draco passed by, he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "See you at school."

"See you at school." She smiled.

And with that, the Narcissa and Draco strode out of the shop, Draco taking care to bang as hard as he could into Ron on the way out.

"Well, really? said Madam Malkin, snatching up the fallen robes and moving the tip of her wand over them like a vacuum cleaner, so that it removed all the dust.

She was distracted all through the fitting of Ron's and Harry's new robes, tried to sell Hermione wizard's dress robes instead of witch's, and when she finally bowed them out of the shop it was with an air of being glad to see the back of them.

"Got everything?" asked Hagrid brightly when they reappeared at his side.

"Just about," said Harry. "Did you see the Malfoys?"

"Yeah," said Hagrid, unconcerned. "Bu they wouldn' dare make trouble in the middle o' Diagon Alley, Harry. Don' worry about them."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged looks, but before they could disabuse Hagrid of this comfortable notion, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny appeared, all clutching heavy packages of books. Juliunna looked away from the dark shadows of burnt down shop, recently to her estimation, and turned back to face everyone.

"Everyone all right?" said Mrs. Weasley. "Got your robes? Right then. Juliunna, I have your money. I want you to come inside and we'll pick you out a few robes. Then, we can all pop in at the Apothecary and Eeylops on the way to Fred and George's — stick close, now. . . ." She said to Juliunna. She and Juliunna popped into the shop. They were in there for at least ten minutes. When they came out, Juliunna had a giant shopping bag in one hand, and was talking to Mrs. Weasley.

"You already got the books?"  
"Yes, I took the list of your dresser this morning."  
"Your talking about the OWL requirements?"

"Yes, all of them. All." Mrs. Weasley said when Juliunna raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Okay."

"I really don't understand why you want to study dark magic anyway." Mrs. Weasley said as they joined the group. They all started up the road.

"Have you ever heard the saying, fighting fire with fire?" Juliunna asked her. "And I swear, if we get home and I found out you got me a children's book on dark magic, or a silly, child's comic, like Barry the Bumbling idiot or something, then I am going to be so mad at you."

"I got the exact same textbook in the pamphlet, Juliunna." Mrs. Weasley said.

Hagrid ended up carrying Juliunna's bags when they got to the Apothecary. For the longer they went, the more Juliunna kept trying to duck away and buy things that were too heavy for her. Mrs. Weasley nearly had a heart attack when Juliunna made a wrong turn and stepped into Knockturn Alley, right into a group of loud and boisterous men. At least in their twenties.

Needless to say, when she innocently excepted the bottle of Firewhisky they offered her, she was not allowed to read any of her books until she got to Hogwarts, as part of Mrs. Weasley's grounding. Neither Harry nor Ron bought any ingredients at the Apothecary, seeing that they were no longer studying Potions, but both bought large boxes of owl nuts for Hedwig and Pigwidgeon at Eeylops Owl Emporium. Then, with Mrs. Weasley checking her watch every minute or so, they headed farther along the street in search of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, the joke shop run by Fred and George.

"We really haven't got too long," Mrs. Weasley said. "So we'll just have a quick look around and then back to the car. We must be close, that's number ninety-two . . . ninety-four . . ."

"Whoa," Said Ron, stopping in his tracks.

Set against the dull, poster-muffled shop Fronts around them, Fred and Georges windows hit the eye like a firework display. Casual passersby were looking back over their shoulders at the windows, and a few rather stunned-looking people had actually come to a halt, transfixed. The left-hand window was dazzlingly full of an assortment of goods that revolved, popped, flashed, bounced, and shrieked; Harry's eyes began to water just looking at it. The right-hand window was covered with a gigantic poster, purple like those of the Ministry, but emblazoned with flashing yellow letters:

**WHY ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT **

**YOU-KNOW-WHO? **

**YOU SHOULD BE WORRYING ABOUT **

**U-NO-POO!**

**THE CONSTIPATION SENSATION **

**THAT'S GRIPPING THE NATION! **

"Are they idiots?!" Juliunna said, her jaw wide open.

Harry started to laugh. He heard a weak sort of moan beside him and looked around to see Mrs. Weasley gazing, dumbfounded, at the poster. Her lips moved silently, mouthing the name, 'U-No-Poo.'

"They'll be murdered in their beds!" she whispered.

"No they won't!" said Ron, who, like Harry, was laughing. "This is brilliant!"

"What if one of the Death Eaters get offended and decide to silence them?" Juliunna asked Mrs. Weasley, who whimpered in her answer. "Let's just hope they know to lock their doors."

And he and Harry led the way into the shop. It was packed with customers; Harry could not get near the shelves. He stared around, looking up at the boxes piled to the ceiling: Here were the Skiving Snack boxes that the twins had perfected during their last, unfinished year at Hogwarts; Harry noticed that the Nosebleed Nougat was most popular, with only one battered box left on the shelf. There were bins full of trick wands, the cheapest merely turning into rubber chickens or pairs of briefs when waved, the most expensive beating the unwary user around the head and neck, and boxes of quills, which came in Self-Inking, Spell-Checking, and Smart-Answer varieties. A space cleared in the crowd, and Harry pushed his way toward the counter, where a gaggle of delighted ten-year-olds was watching a tiny little wooden man slowly ascending the steps to a real set of gallows, both perched on a box that read: reusable hangman — spell it or he'll swing!

'Patented Daydream Charms '

Hermione had managed to squeeze through to a large display near the counter and was reading the information on the back of a box bearing a highly colored picture of a handsome youth and a swooning girl who were standing on the deck of a pirate ship.

"'One simple incantation and you will enter a top-quality, highly realistic, thirty-minute daydream, easy to fit into the average school lesson and virtually undetectable (side effects include vacant expression and minor drooling). Not for sale to under-sixteens. You know," said Hermione, looking up at Harry, "that really is extraordinary magic!" Juliunna nodded, squeezing through.

"For that, Hermione," said a voice behind them, "you can have one for free."

A beaming Fred stood before them, wearing a set of magenta robes that clashed magnificently with his flaming hair. "Come on! Buy something or move!" She barked at the kids around them. As if she had pointed her wand at them, they ran. Fred chuckled. "Cheeky little cowards they are. Well, how are you, Harry?" They shook hands. Fred smiled. "Come on, Harry, I'll give you a tour."

…

Juliunna, Ginny, and Hermione had been squeezing through the shop for about fifteen minutes. Fred led Harry (Who had mainly refused to take anything for free), back into the main part of the shop to find Hermione Juliunna, and Ginny still poring over the Patented Daydream Charms.

"Haven't you girls found our special Wonder Witch products yet?" asked Fred. "Follow me, ladies. . . ."

Near the window was an array of violently pink products around which a cluster of excited girls was giggling enthusiastically. Hermione and Ginny both hung back, looking wary. Juliunna looked disgusted.

"There you go," said Fred proudly. "Best range of love potions you'll find anywhere."

Ginny raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Do they work?" she asked.

"Certainly they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time depending on the weight of the boy in question —"

"— and the attractiveness of the girl," said George, reappearing suddenly at their side. "But we're not selling them to our sister," he added, becoming suddenly stern, "not when she's already got about five boys on the go from what we've —"

"Whatever you've heard from Ron is a big fat lie," said Ginny calmly, leaning forward to take a small pink pot off the shelf. "What's this?"

"Guaranteed ten-second pimple vanisher," said Fred. "Excellent on everything from boils to blackheads, but don't change the subject. Are you or are you not currently going out with a boy called Dean Thomas?"

"Yes, I am," said Ginny. "And last time I looked, he was definitely one boy, not five. What are those?"

She was pointing at a number of round balls of fluff in shades of pink and purple, all rolling around the bottom of a cage and emitting high-pitched squeaks.

"Pygmy Puffs," said George. "Miniature puffskeins, we can't breed them fast enough. So what about Michael Corner?"

"I dumped him, he was a bad loser," said Ginny, putting a finger through the bars of the cage and watching the Pygmy Puffs crowd around it. "They're really cute!"

"They're fairly cuddly, yes," conceded Fred. "But you're moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren't you?" He said, and Juliunna gave a long, slow whistle.

Ginny turned to look at him, her hands on her hips. There was such a Mrs. Weasley-ish glare on her face that Harry was surprised Fred didn't recoil.

"It's none of your business. And I'll thank you'' she added angrily to Ron, who had just appeared at George's elbow, laden with merchandise, "not to tell tales about me to these two!"

"That's three Galleons, nine Sickles, and a Knut," said Fred, examining the many boxes in Ron's arms. "Cough up."

"I'm your brother!"

"And that's our stuff you're nicking. Three Galleons, nine Sickles. I'll knock off the Knut." Fred said. He looked to Juliunna, who had just picked up a bag of sugary candy. "Harry's told us about you." Fred said. Juliunna raised an eyebrow at Harry, who's eyes darted to the floor.

"Yes?"

"You can have anything you want for half off." He smirked.

"Thanks."

"Ron you have to pay."

"But I haven't got three Galleons, nine Sickles!"

"You'd better put it back then, and mind you put it on the right shelves."

Ron dropped several boxes, swore, and made a rude hand gesture at Fred that was unfortunately spotted by Mrs. Weasley, who had chosen that moment to appear.

"If I see you do that again I'll jinx your fingers together," she said sharply.

"Mum, can I have a Pygmy Puff?" said Ginny at once.

"A what?" said Mrs. Weasley warily.

"Look, they're so sweet. . . ."

Mrs. Weasley moved aside to look at the Pygmy Puffs, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione momentarily had an unimpeded view out of the window. Draco Malfoy was hurrying up the street alone. As he passed Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, he glanced over his shoulder. Seconds later, he moved beyond the scope of the window and they lost sight of him.

"Wonder where his mummy is?" said Harry, frowning.

"Given her the slip by the looks of it," said Ron.

"Why, though?" said Hermione.

Harry said nothing; he was thinking too hard. Narcissa Malfoy would not have let her precious son out of her sight willingly; Malfoy must have made a real effort to free himself from her clutches.

Harry, knowing and loathing Malfoy, was sure the reason could not be innocent.

He glanced around. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were bending over the Pygmy Puffs. Mr. Weasley was delightedly examining a pack of Muggle marked playing cards. Fred and George were both helping customers. On the other side of the glass, Hagrid was standing with his back to them, looking up and down the street.

"Get under here, quick," said Harry, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag.

"Oh — I don't know, Harry," said Hermione, looking uncertainly toward Mrs. Weasley.

"Can I come?" Juliunna asked, appearing behind Ron.

"Yes… I don't think there's not much room though." Harry started.

"I'll walk if it doesn't fit." She said with a shrug. Harry lifted the cloak, and to his surprise, it covered all of them. It seemed bigger then before.

Hermione hesitated for a second longer, then ducked under the cloak with Harry , Juliunna and Ron. Nobody noticed them vanish; they were all too interested in Fred and George's products. Harry, Ron, and Hermione squeezed their way out of the door as quickly as they could, but by the time they gained the street, Malfoy had disappeared just as successfully as they had.

"He was going in that direction," Juliunna said as quietly as possible, so that the humming Hagrid would not hear them. "C'mon."

They scurried along, peering left and right, through shop windows and doors, until Hermione pointed ahead. "That's him, isn't it?" she whispered. "Turning left?"

"Big surprise," whispered Ron. For Malfoy had glanced around, then slid into Knockturn Alley and out of sight.

"Quick, or we'll lose him," said Harry, speeding up.

"Our feet'Il be seen!" said Hermione anxiously, as the cloak flapped a little around their ankles.

"It doesn't matter," said Harry impatiently. "Just hurry!"

But Knockturn Alley, the side street devoted to the Dark Arts, looked completely deserted now. They peered into windows as they passed, but none of the shops seemed to have any customers at all. Harry supposed it was a bit of a giveaway in these dangerous and suspicious times to buy Dark artifacts — or at least, to be seen buying them.

Hermione gave his arm a hard pinch.

"Ouch!"

"Shh! Look! He's in there!" she breathed in Harry's ear.

They had drawn level with the only shop in Knockturn Alley that Harry had ever visited, Borgin and Burkes, which sold a wide variety of sinister objects. There in the midst of the cases full of skulls and old bottles stood Draco Malfoy with his back to them, just visible beyond the very same large black cabinet in which Harry had once hidden to avoid Malfoy and his father. Judging by the movements of Malfoy's hands, he was talking animatedly. The proprietor of the shop, Mr. Borgin, an oily-haired, stooping man, stood facing Malfoy. He was wearing a curious expression of mingled resentment and fear.

"If only we could hear what they're saying!" said Hermione.

"We can!" said Ron excitedly. "Hang on — damn —"

He dropped a couple more of the boxes he was still clutching as he fumbled with the largest.

"Extendable Ears, look!"

"Fantastic!" said Juliunna, as Ron unraveled the long, flesh colored strings and began to feed them toward the bottom of the door. "Oh, I hope the door isn't Imperturbable —"

"No!" said Ron gleefully. "Listen!"

They put their heads together and listened intently to the ends of the strings, through which Malfoy's voice could be heard loud and clear, as though a radio had been turned on.

". . . you know how to fix it?"

"Possibly," said Borgin, in a tone that suggested he was unwilling to commit himself. "I'll need to see it, though. Why don't you bring it into the shop?"

"I can't," said Malfoy. "It's got to stay put. I just need you to tell me how to do it."

Harry saw Borgin lick his lips nervously.

"Well, without seeing it, I must say it will be a very difficult job, perhaps impossible. I couldn't guarantee anything."

"No?" said Malfoy, and Harry knew, just by his tone, that Malfoy was sneering. "Perhaps this will make you more confident."

He moved toward Borgin and was blocked from view by the cabinet. Harry, Ron, Juliunna and Hermione shuffled sideways to try and keep him in sight, but all they could see was Borgin, looking very frightened.

"Tell anyone," said Malfoy, "and there will be retribution. You know Fenir Greyback? He's a family friend. He'll be dropping in from time to time to make sure you're giving the problem your full attention."

"There will be no need for —"

"I'll decide that," said Malfoy. "Well, I'd better be off. And don't forget to keep that one safe, I'll need it."

"Perhaps you'd like to take it now?"

"No, of course I wouldn't, you stupid, little man, how would I look carrying that down the street? Just don't sell it."

"Of course not. . . sir."

Borgin made a bow as deep as the one Harry had once seen him give Lucius Malfoy.

"Not a word to anyone, Borgin, and that includes my mother, understand?"

"Naturally, naturally," murmured Borgin, bowing again.

Next moment, the bell over the door tinkled loudly as Malfoy stalked out of the shop looking very pleased with himself. He passed so close to Harry, Ron, Juliunna and Hermione that they felt the cloak flutter around their knees again. Inside the shop, Borgin remained frozen; his unctuous smile had vanished; he looked worried.

"What was that about?" whispered Ron, reeling in the Extendable Ears.

"Dunno," said Harry, thinking hard. "He wants something mended . . . and he wants to reserve something in there. . . . Could you see what he pointed at when he said 'that one'?"

"No, he was behind that cabinet —"

"You three stay here," whispered Hermione.

"Well, why don't I go ask Draco? He'd surely tell me." Juliunna said, standing up slightly. Harry grabbed her wrist. "No!" He whispered. But even as they spoke, Draco rounded the corner and disappeared from their sight.

"Why not?"

"Let's see what Hermione's doing first." He said. "I don't want Malfoy wondering how you found out about this."

"What are you — ?" Ron started, but Hermione had already ducked out from under the cloak. She checked her hair in the reflection in the glass, then marched into the shop, setting the bell tinkling again. Ron hastily fed the Extendable Ears back under the door and passed one of the strings to Harry, and another to Juliunna..

"Hello, horrible morning, isn't it?" Hermione said brightly to Borgin, who did not answer, but cast her a suspicious look. Humming cheerily, Hermione strolled through the jumble of objects on display.

"Is this necklace for sale?" she asked, pausing beside a glass-fronted case. "We're doomed." Juliunna sighed, and Ron chuckled.

"If you've got one and a half thousand Galleons," said Mr. Borgin coldly.

"Oh — er — no, I haven't got quite that much," said Hermione, walking on. "And . . . what about this lovely — um — skull?"

"Sixteen Galleons."

"So it's for sale, then? It isn't being . . . kept for anyone?"

Mr. Borgin squinted at her. Harry had the nasty feeling he knew exactly what Hermione was up to. Apparently Hermione felt she had been rumbled too because she suddenly threw caution to the winds.

"The thing is, that — er — boy who was in here just now, Draco Malfoy, well, he's a friend of mine, and I want to get him a birthday present, but if he's already reserved anything, I obviously don't want to get him the same thing, so ... um ..."

It was a pretty lame story in Harry's opinion, and apparently Borgin thought so too.

"Out," he said sharply. "Get out!"

Hermione did not wait to be asked twice, but hurried to the door with Borgin at her heels. As the bell tinkled again, Borgin slammed the door behind her and put up the closed sign.

"Ah well," said Ron, throwing the cloak back over Hermione. "Worth a try, but you were a bit obvious —"

"Well, next time you can show me how it's done, Master of Mystery!" she snapped. Juliunna snickered.

Ron and Hermione bickered all the way back to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, where they were forced to stop so that they could dodge undetected around a very anxious-looking Mrs. Weasley and Hagrid, who had clearly noticed their absence. Once in the shop, Harry whipped off the Invisibility Cloak, hid it in his bag, and joined in with the other three when they insisted, in answer to Mrs. Weasleys accusations, that they had been in the back room all along, and that she could not have looked properly.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

**Normal Pov**

**One Week Later**

Their departure the following morning was smoother than usual. The Ministry cars glided up to the front of the Burrow to find them waiting, trunks packed; Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, safely enclosed in his traveling basket; and Hedwig; Ron's owl, Pig-widgeon; and Ginny's new purple Pygmy Puff, Arnold, in cages.

"Au revoir, 'Arry'," said Fleur throatily, kissing him good-bye. Ron hurried forward, looking hopeful, but Ginny stuck out her foot and Ron fell, sprawling in the dust at Fleur's feet. Furious, red-faced, and dirt-spattered, he hurried into the car without saying good-bye. "Scrougify." Molly said, pointing her wand in the window. Ron was then clean, but still refused to move over for Ginny. On the way to King's Cross, Juliunna kept asking the Auror driver questions.

"What is your main job?"

"To catch You Know Who, mainly. And then other Dark Wizards along the way." One said gruffly.

"Would you say your salary is bad, good, great, or charitable?"

"It's great."

There was no cheerful Hagrid waiting for them at King's Cross Station. Instead, two grim-faced, bearded Aurors in dark Muggle suits moved forward the moment the cars stopped and, flanking the party, marched them into the station without speaking.

"Quick, quick, through the barrier," said Mrs. Weasley, who seemed a little flustered by this austere efficiency. "Harry had better go first, with…"

She looked inquiringly at one of the Aurors, who nodded briefly, seized Harry's upper arm, and attempted to steer him toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

"I can walk, thanks," said Harry irritably, jerking his arm out of the Auror's grip. He pushed his trolley directly at the solid barrier, ignoring his silent companion, and found himself, a second later, standing on platform nine and three-quarters, where the scarlet Hogwarts Express stood belching steam over the crowd.

Hermione and the Weasleys joined him within seconds. Without waiting to consult his grim-faced Auror, Harry motioned to Ron and Hermione to follow him up the platform, looking for an empty compartment.

"We can't, Harry," said Hermione, looking apologetic. "Ron and Jules and I, we've got to go to the prefects' carriage first and then patrol the corridors for a bit."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," said Harry.

"You'd better get straight on the train, all of you, you've only got a few minutes to go," said Mrs. Weasley, consulting her watch. "Well, have a lovely term, Ron. . . ."

"Mr. Weasley, can I have a quick word?" said Harry, making up his mind on the spur of the moment. "Yes Harry."

"Okay, one second. Juliunna, come here." Harry ordered her abruptly. Juliunna skipped to his side curiously, and he leaned forward.

"When you see Malfoy, ask him."

"Oh not this again Harry." Juliunna moaned.

"Ask him what he was buying in the shop. And ask him if he's a death eater. The sooner I prove you, Hermione, and Ron wrong, the sooner I'll stop talking about it." He said. Juliunna nodded with a sigh.

"Alright." She turned around and marched back to Ron and Hermione's side. Together, they walked onto the train. Harry turned away from them and looked to Mr. Weasley, prepared to tell him everything he knew about Draco Malfoy.

…

**(After Slughornes Lunch)**

As he pushed past Harry into the darkening corridor, Zabini shot him a filthy look that Harry returned with interest. He, Ginny, and Neville followed Zabini back along the train.

"I'm glad that's over," muttered Neville. "Strange man, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is a bit," said Harry, his eyes on Zabini. "How come you ended up in there, Ginny?" Harry asked. He watched Zabini enter through a pair of double doors and nearly rammed Juliunna to the floor by accident.

"He saw me hex Zacharias Smith," said Ginny. "You remember that idiot from Hufflepuff who was in the D.A.? He kept on and on asking about what happened at the Ministry and in the end he annoyed me so much I hexed him? When Slughorn came in I thought I was going to got detention, but he just thought it was a really good hex and invited me to lunch! Mad, eh?" Ginny said. Harry's eyes floated from Ginny's face to Blaise picking Juliunna off to the floor.

"Better reason for inviting someone than because their mother's famous," said Harry, scowling at the back of Zabini's head, "or because their uncle…"

But he broke off. An idea had just occurred to him, a reckless but potentially wonderful idea. He knew it the second Blaise pointed ahead, talking to Juliunna. He was obviously inviting her to go sit in his compartment. Juliunna nodded, and he led her down the hall.

In a minute's time, Zabini and Juliunna were going to reenter the Slytherin sixth-year compartment and Malfoy would be sitting there, thinking himself unheard by anybody except fellow Slytherins. ... If Harry could only enter, unseen, behind him, what might he not see or hear? True, there was little of the journey left. Hogsmeade Station had to be less than half an hour away, judging by the wildness of the scenery flashing by the windows. But nobody else seemed prepared to take Harry's suspicions seriously, so it was down to him to prove them.

"I'll see you two later," said Harry under his breath, pulling out his Invisibility Cloak and flinging it over himself.

"But what're you…?" asked Neville.

"Later!" whispered Harry, darting after Zabini and Juliunna as quietly as possible, though the rattling of the train made such caution almost pointless.

The corridors were almost completely empty now. Nearly everyone had returned to their carriages to change into their school robes and pack up their possessions. Though he was as close as he could get to Zabini without touching him, Harry was not quick enough to slip into the compartment when Zabini opened the door. Zabini was already sliding it shut when Harry hastily stuck out his foot to prevent it closing.

"What's wrong with this thing?" said Zabini angrily as he smashed the sliding door repeatedly into Harry's foot.

"Hold on, let me try." Juliunna said curiously.

Harry seized the door and pushed it open hard; Zabini, still clinging on to the handle, toppled over sideways into Gregory Goyle's lap, and in the ensuing ruckus, Harry darted into the compartment, leapt onto Zabini's temporarily empty seat, and hoisted himself up into the luggage rack. It was fortunate that Goyle and Zabini were snarling at each other, drawing all eyes onto them, for Harry was quite sure his feet and ankles had been revealed as the cloak had flapped around them; indeed, for one horrible moment he thought he saw Malfoy's eyes follow his trainer as it whipped upward out of sight. But then Goyle slammed the door shut and flung Zabini off him; Zabini collapsed into his own seat looking ruffled, Vincent Crabbe returned to his comic, and Malfoy, sniggering, lay back down across two seats with his head in Pansy Parkinsons lap. Harry lay curled uncomfortably under the cloak to ensure that every inch of him remained hidden, and watched Pansy stroke the sleek blond hair off Malfoy's forehead, smirking as she did so, as though anyone would have loved to have been in her place. The lanterns swinging from the carriage ceiling cast a bright light over the scene: Harry could read every word of Crabbe's comic directly below him.

"Hi Draco." Juliunna said loudly, sitting next to Blaise. Draco didn't move his head from Pansy's lap.

"Hello Juliunna. I asked Blaise to get you after lunch. How are you doing?"

Harry felt that Draco should really get away from Pansy fast. Pansy was smirking at Juliunna, who he was almost sure she was itching her hand towards her concealed wand, hidden in her pocket.

"I'm doing fine." She said icily. Blaise looked between Juliunna, and back to Draco and Pansy.

"Something happened that I don't know about."

"Juliunna thinks its completely justifiable to kiss Ron Weasley." Draco said, sitting up, frowning deeply.

Harry bit back the laughter that waned to burst from his mouth.

"And you think this is okay? This cow in a sweater?! Resting you head on her fat thighs like a freaking pillow. You don't fight a right with a wrong. And this is just seriously, seriously wrong. " Juliunna snapped, and Pansy gasped. Blaise bit back the chuckle, but he couldn't help but snort. Draco glowered at Juliunna.

"Drop him and I'll drop Pansy."

"What? We're friends!" Juliunna snapped. "Alright then. So are Pansy and I." Draco smirked. He snuggled into Pansy's lap. Juliunna looked like she was about to hex him into oblivion. Draco seemed to notice this, for he turned to Blaise.

"So, Zabini," said Malfoy, "What did Slughorn want?"

"Just trying to make up to well-connected people," said Zabini, who was still chuckling at Juliunna. "Not that he managed to find many."

This information did not seem to please Malfoy. "Who else had he invited?" he demanded.

"McLaggen from Gryffindor," said Zabini.

"Oh yeah, his uncle's big in the Ministry," said Malfoy.

"Someone else called Belby, from Ravenclaw."

"Not him, he's a prat!" said Pansy. Juliunna rolled her eyes.

"And Longbottom, Potter, and that Weasley girl," finished Zabini.

Malfoy sat up very suddenly, knocking Pansy's hand aside.

"He invited Longbottom?"

"Well, I assume so, as Longbottom was there," said Zabini indifferently.

"What's Longbottom got to interest Slughorn?"

Zabini shrugged.

"Obviously something that you don't have." Juliunna smirked. Draco glared at her.

"Potter, precious Potter, obviously he wanted a look at 'the Chosen One,'" sneered Malfoy, "but that Weasley girl! What's so special about her?"

"A lot of boys like her," said Pansy, watching Malfoy out of the corner of her eyes for his reaction. "Even you think she's good-looking, don't you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!

"I wouldn't touch a filthy little blood traitor like her whatever she looked like," said Zabini coldly, and Pansy looked pleased. Malfoy sank back across her lap and allowed her to resume the stroking of his hair.

"You know Malfoy, if you don't want this one, I'll take her off your hands." Blaise said airily. Juliunna chuckled, and Harry rolled his eyes. Malfoy glared at him, but recovered his facial expression in a second.

"I wouldn't bet on it. She only likes blood traitors."

"I liked you. Or at least I did before you started acting like an arse." Juliunna snapped. Draco took a big sigh, and turned back to Blaise.

"Well, I pity Slughorn's taste. Maybe he's going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favorite of his. Slughorn probably hasn't heard I'm on the train, or-!"

"I wouldn't bank on an invitation," said Zabini. "He asked me about Nott's father when I first arrived. They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he'd been caught at the Ministry he didn't look happy, and Nott didn't get an invitation, did he? I don't think Slughorn's interested in Death Eaters."

Malfoy looked angry, but forced out a singularly humorless laugh.

"Well, who cares what he's interested in? What is he, when you come down to it? Just some stupid teacher." Malfoy yawned ostentatiously. "I mean, I might not even be at Hogwarts next year, what's it matter to me if some fat old has-been likes me or not?"

"What do you mean, you might not be at Hogwarts next year?" said Pansy indignantly, ceasing grooming Malfoy at once.

"Well, you never know," said Malfoy with the ghost of a smirk. "I might have err… moved on to bigger and better things."

Crouched in the luggage rack under his cloak, Harry's heart began to race. Juliunna raised a suspicious eyebrow at Draco's tone. What would Ron and Hermione say about this? Crabbe and Goyle were gawping at Malfoy; apparently they had had no inkling of any plans to move on to bigger and better things. Even Zabini had allowed a look of curiosity to mar his haughty features. Pansy resumed the slow stroking of Malfoy s hair, looking dumbfounded.

"Do you mean —"

Malfoy shrugged.

"Mother wants me to complete my education, but personally, I don't see it as that important these days. I mean, think about it. ... When the Dark Lord takes over, is he going to care how many OWLs or N.E.W.T.S anyone's got? Of course he isn't? It'll be all about the kind of service he received, the level of devotion he was shown."

"And you think you'll be able to do something for him?" Asked Zabini scathingly. "Sixteen years old and not even fully qualified yet?"

"I've just said, haven't I? Maybe he doesn't care if I'm qualified. Maybe the job he wants me to do isn't something that you need to be qualified for," said Malfoy quietly.

Crabbe and Goyle were both sitting with their mouths open like gargoyles. Pansy was gazing down at Malfoy as though she had never seen anything so awe-inspiring. Juliunna looked horrified.

"I can see Hogwarts," said Malfoy, clearly relishing the effect he had created as he pointed out of the blackened window. "We'd better get our robes on."

Harry was so busy staring at Malfoy, he did not notice Goyle reaching up for his trunk; as he swung it down, it hit Harry hard on the side of the head. He let out an involuntary gasp of pain, and Malfoy looked up at the luggage rack, frowning.

Harry was not afraid of Malfoy, but he still did not much like the idea of being discovered hiding under his Invisibility Cloak by a group of unfriendly Slytherins. Eyes still watering and head still throbbing, he drew his wand, careful not to disarrange the cloak, and waited, breath held. To his relief, Malfoy seemed to decide that he had imagined the noise; he pulled on his robes like the others, locked his trunk, and as the train slowed to a jerky crawl, fastened a thick new traveling cloak round his neck.

Harry could see the corridors filling up again and hoped that Hermione and Ron would take his things out onto the platform for him; he was stuck where he was until the compartment had quite emptied. At last, with a final lurch, the train came to a complete halt. Goyle threw the door open and muscled his way out into a crowd of second years, punching them aside; Crabbe and Zabini followed.

"You go on," Malfoy told Pansy, who was waiting for him with her hand held out as though hoping he would hold it. Juliunna scoffed. "I just want to check something." Draco said with a smile.

Pansy stared at Juliunna. "You heard him."

"That doesn't apply to me. I, unlike you, are at a higher post."

"Ha!" Pansy laughed.

"Your going die laughing." Juliunna muttered. Pansy left, scowling. Now Harry, Juliunna, and Malfoy were alone in the compartment. People were filing past, descending onto the dark platform. Malfoy moved over to the compartment door and let down the blinds, so that people in the corridor beyond could not peer in.

"I have to tell you some-!"

Juliunna interrupted him angrily. "Harry was right. You obeyed him!"  
"Wait." Draco said. He moved forward and gripped both of her hips. Harry turned over, embarrassed, and stared at the wall.

"I did it for you. We won't be safe to talk in Hogwarts for a while. I'll tell you now. The Dark Lord… He used Legilimency on me. He realized that we were… Together. Or sort of together, whatever you want to call it. He offered me something I couldn't deny." Draco said. Juliunna leaned forward, frowning.

Draco whispered something that Harry couldn't hear.

"(Whisper)… Yeah. He said he'd allow me to officially date you."

"What?!" She snapped.

"Yeah. You know, ask you to be my girlfriend. I say that, because I know you wouldn't like it if I sprung up marriage, because he really offered up a betrothal. Marriage, you know." He added. Harry snorted, and both Juliunna and Draco looked over to where Harry was hidden.

"I know what it means." Juliunna said, looking back to Draco. "Would you like to be my boyfriend?"

"What? Were you listening?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes or no? Because if you say no, I'm going run straight to Blaise. He's rich, he's handsome, he's suave-!"  
"Yes!" Draco snapped. He grabbed her face and kissed her promtly on the mouth.

"Alright, are you coming sweetheart?" Juliunna asked, turning away from him.

"I'll meet you there. I have to deal with a pesk." He smirked. Juliunna nodded, and within seconds she was gone, the door shutting behind her. Harry turned around.

Draco bent down over his trunk and opened it again.

Harry peered down over the edge of the luggage rack, his heart pumping a little faster. What had Malfoy wanted to hide from Pansy and Juliunna? Was he about to see the mysterious broken object it was so important to mend?

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Without warning, Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry, who was instantly paralyzed. As though in slow motion, he toppled out of the luggage rack and fell, with an agonizing, floor-shaking crash, at Malfoy's feet, the Invisibility Cloak trapped beneath him, his whole body revealed with his legs still curled absurdly into the cramped kneeling position. He couldn't move a muscle; he could only gaze up at Malfoy, who smiled broadly.

"I thought so," he said jubilantly. "I heard Goyle's trunk hit you. And I thought I saw something white flash through the air after Zabini came back. . . ."

His eyes lingered for a moment upon Harry's trainers.

"You didn't hear anything I care about, Potter. But while I've got you here . . ." And he stamped, hard, on Harry's face. Harry felt his nose break; blood spurted everywhere.

"That's from my father. Now, let's see. . . ."

Malfoy dragged the cloak out from under Harry's immobilized body and threw it over him.

"I don't reckon they'll find you till the trains back in London," he said quietly. "See you around, Potter ... or not."

And taking care to tread on Harry's fingers, Draco Malfoy left the compartment.

Harry could not move a muscle. He lay there beneath the Invisibility Cloak feeling the blood from his nose flow, hot and wet, over his face, listening to the voices and footsteps in the corridor beyond. His immediate thought was that someone, would surely, would check the compartments before the train departed again. But at once came the dispiriting realization that even if somebody looked into the compartment, he would be neither seen nor heard. His best hope was that somebody else would walk in and step on him.

Harry had never hated Malfoy more than as he lay there, like an absurd turtle on its back, blood dripping sickeningly into his open mouth. What a stupid situation to have landed himself in... and now the last few footsteps were dying away; everyone was shuffling along the dark platform outside; he could hear the scraping of trunks and loud babble of talk.

Ron and Hermione would think that he had left the train without them. Juliunna would be innocently waiting on the platform with Draco, greeting him with a smile and no idea of what he had done. Once they arrived at Hogwarts and took their places in the Great Hall, looked up and down the Gryffindor table a few times, and finally realized that he was not there, he, no doubt, would be halfway back to London.

He tried to make a sound, even a grunt, but it was impossible. Then he remembered that some wizards, like Dumbledore, could perform spells without speaking, so he tried to summon his wand, which had fallen out of his hand, by saying the words 'Accio Wand!' over and over again in his head, but nothing happened.

He thought he could hear the rustling of the trees that surrounded the lake, and the far-off hoot of an owl, but no hint of a search being made or even (he despised himself slightly for hoping it) panicked voices wondering where Harry Potter had gone. A feeling of hopelessness spread through him as he imagined the convoy of thestral-drawn carriages trundling up to the school and the muffled yells of laughter issuing from whichever carriage Malfoy was riding in, where he could be recounting his attack on Harry to Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, and Pansy Parkinson. Or not, if Juliunna was with him.

The train lurched, causing Harry to roll over onto his side. Now he was staring at the dusty underside of the seats instead of the ceiling. The floor began to vibrate as the engine roared into life. The Express was leaving and nobody knew he was still on it...

Then he felt his Invisibility Cloak fly off him and a voice overhead said, "Hello, Harry."

There was a flash of red light and Harry's body unfroze; he was able to push himself into a more dignified sitting position, hastily wipe the blood off his bruised race with the back of his hand, and raise his head to look up at Juliunna, who was holding the Invisibility Cloak she had just pulled away.

"How'd you find me?" He breathed with relief. She smiled at him.

"When Draco came out, he was smirking. I told him I had to wait till everyone was off as a Prefect, with the excuse that if he had actually came to the meeting, he would have known the new rules, and made him go on without me. I walked in, and there was a tip of your boot exposed. Come on, we better run and jump." She said, as the train windows became obscured with steam and they began to move out of the station. "Come on, we'll jump."

Harry hurried after her into the corridor. She pulled open the train door and leapt onto the platform, which seemed to be sliding underneath them as the train gathered momentum. He followed her, staggered a little on landing, then straightened up in time to see the gleaming scarlet steam engine pick up speed, round the corner, and disappear from view.

The cold night air was soothing on his throbbing nose. Juliunna was looking at him; he felt angry and embarrassed that he had been discovered in such a ridiculous position. Silently she handed him back the Invisibility Cloak.

"I can fix your nose if you stand still." She said softly.

Harry did not think much of this idea; he had been intending to visit Madam Pomfrey, the matron, in whom he had a little more confidence when it came to Healing Spells. But Juliunna's wand seemed strong, and she was too. So he stayed stock-still and closed his eyes,

"Episkey." She said, pointing her wand at the tip of his nose.

Harry's nose felt very hot, and then very cold. He raised a hand and felt it gingerly. It seemed to be mended.

"Thanks a lot!"

"You'd better put that cloak back on, and we can walk up to the school," Juliunna said, still unsmiling. As Harry swung the cloak back over himself, she waved her wand; an large, sneaky and transparent snake erupted from it and streaked off into the darkness.

''Was that a Patronus?" asked Harry, who had seen Dumbledore send messages like this.

"Yes. Hermione taught me in the Prefects carriage. I'm sending word to the castle that we're alive and well. You know, so they don't freak out. Come on, we'd better not dawdle."

They set off toward the lane that led to the school, Juliunna smiling brightly.

They trudged up the dark, deserted lane, following the freshly made carriage tracks. Harry looked sideways at Juliunna under his cloak. She was smiling happily, looking sideways at the dark sky and stars. Harry didn't want to talk about Malfoy right this moment, and so they tramped on through the cold night in silence, the long cloak whispering on the ground behind them.

Having always traveled there by carriage, Harry had never before appreciated just how far Hogwarts was from Hogsmeade Station. With great relief he finally saw the tall pillars on either side of the gates, each topped with a winged boar. He was cold, he was hungry and he was quite keen to climb into a warm bed and sleep. But when he put out a hand to push open the gates, he found them chained shut.

"Alohamora!" he said confidently, pointing his wand at the padlock, but nothing happened.

"That won't work on these," said Juliunna sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dumbledore bewitched them himself."

Harry looked around, "We could climb a wall," he suggested.

"No, you couldn't," Juliunna said flatly. "Anti-intruder jinxes on all of them. Security's been tightened a hundredfold this summer. According to Remus and Tonks. In fact, Mad Eye mentions that to me every time we see each other. He thinks I'm still a Death Eater." Juliunna said with short laugh.

"Well then," said Harry, starting to feel annoyed at her lack of helpfulness, "I suppose we'll l just have to sleep out here and wait for morning."

"Someone's coming down for us," said Juliunna. "Look."

A lantern was bobbing at the distant foot of the castle. Harry was so pleased to see it he felt he could even endure Filch's wheezy criticisms of his tardiness and rants about how his timekeeping would improve with the regular application of thumbscrews. It was not until the glowing yellow light was ten feet away from them, and had pulled off his Invisibility Cloak so that he could be seen, that he recognized with a rush of pure loathing, the up lit hooked nose and long, black, greasy hair of Severus Snape.

"Well, well, well," sneered Snape, taking out his wand and tapping the padlock once, so that the chains snaked backward and the gates creaked open. "Nice of you to turn up, Potter, although you have evidently decided that the wearing of school robes would detract from your appearance."

"I couldn't change, I didn't have my —" Harry began, but Snape cut across him. "Come along Juliunna. Your in no less fault then Potter."

"I meant for Hagrid to get the message," Juliunna said, frowning.

"Hagrid was late for the start-of-term feast, just like you and Potter here, so I took it instead. And incidentally," said Snape, standing back to allow Harry to pass him, "I was interested to see your Patronus."

Juliunna flushed darkly. "Yeah?"

"Impressive as it may be, I must ask, have you been performing magic during the summer? It's impressive if you just started today, even if it is weak." He smirked. She growled. "I can't believe I missed you, Severus." She said sarcastically.

"Nevertheless of your parentage, sweetie, your father knows that I will show you no less respect then I should for a student. Twenty points from Slytherin."

Snape did not speak for a minute or so. Harry felt as though his body was generating waves of hatred so powerful that it seemed incredible that Snape could not feel them burning him. He had loathed Snape from their first encounter, but Snape had placed himself forever and irrevocably beyond the possibility of Harry's forgiveness by his attitude toward Sirius. Whatever Dumbledore said, Harry had had time to think over the summer, and had concluded that Snape's snide remarks to Sirius about remaining safely hidden while the rest of the Order of the Phoenix were off fighting Voldemort had probably been a powerful factor in Sirius rushing off to the Ministry the night that he had died. Harry clung to this notion, because it enabled him to blame Snape, which felt satisfying, and also because he knew that if anyone was not sorry that Sirius was dead, it was the man now striding next to him in the darkness.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor for lateness, I think," said Snape. "And, let me see, another twenty for your Muggle attire. You know, I don't believe any House has ever been in negative figures this early in the term: We haven't even started pudding. You might have set a record, Potter."

"I don't understand. Harry was late for a fault other then his own. He was temporarily petrified and left on the floor. There is no reason he should be punished." Juliunna said, striding in step with Snape, who pretended not to hear her.

"I shouldn't have to punish Slytherin House too much. So much for bringing pride to your ancestors." Severus smirked at Juliunna.

"Your punishing us out of spite! Draco stunned Harry and left him under the invisibility cloak!" Juliunna snapped at him. "Do you hear me?!"

"Another ten points from Slytherin, for accusations and insults to a fellow classmate." He said airily.

"Accusions?!" Juliunna shrieked. She looked mad, almost feral. Harry grabbed her by the shoulder and shook his head no.

"Do you see the blood on his face?!" Juliunna shrieked, pointing at Harry. Harry felt his face. It was sticky. Snape sighed. "Oh my, another twenty points from Slytherin. Wait till I write home to your father-!"  
"Argh!" Juliunna screamed. She stomped ahead, Harry still being dragged along by the tight grip on her.

"I suppose you wanted to make an entrance, did you?" Snape continued. "And with no flying car available you decided that bursting into the Great Hall halfway through the feast ought to create a dramatic effect. And I bet you would have loved the attention, Miss Riddle. I bet your bursting to walk in there and announce that you're the Daughter of the Dark Lord."

"I hate you, so much." Juliunna whispered, her eyes narrowing into slits.

"You can both think about that in detention. Do consider it, won't you?" Snape said softly, smirking. Still Harry remained silent, thought he thought his chest might explode. He was as angry as Juliunna, though he had a little more self control on his anger.

He knew that Snape had come to fetch them for this, for the few minutes when he could needle and torment Harry and Juliunna without anyone else listening.

They reached the castle steps at last and as the great oaken front doors swung open into the vast flagged entrance hall, a burst of talk and laughter and of tinkling plates and glasses greeted them through the doors standing open into the Great Hail. Harry wondered whether he could slip his Invisibility Cloak back on, thereby gaining his seat at the long Gryffindor table (which, inconveniently, was the farthest from the entrance hall) without being noticed. As though he had read Harry's mind, however, Snape said, "No cloak. You can walk in so that everyone sees you, which is what you wanted, I'm sure."

"You make me so angry. One second." Juliunna snarled, turning to Harry. She lifted her wand to Harry's face. "Tergeo." Harry felt his face, which was now smooth and soft.

"Did I authorize that piece of magic Miss Riddle? No. Thirty points from Slytherin."

"Like I care." She said, rolling her eyes. "Let's go." She said to Harry, grabbing his arm. She pulled him away from Snape, and together they strode forward fast. People had barely had the chance to stare before Juliunna had sat down next to Ron and Hermione. Harry followed suit.

"Harry, Juliunna." Hermione said happily. In the next second, Juliunna had buried her head into her folded arms on the table, bursting into angry tears.

"What happened?"

"Not now." Harry growled.

"But-!"

"I said not now Hermione!" Harry snarled deeper. There were people nearby, trying to eavesdrop and see what was going on. He leaned over and patted Juliunna's back softly as she sobbed into her arms.

He hastily looked away toward the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy was miming the shattering of a nose to raucous laughter and applause. Harry dropped his gaze to his treacle tart, his insides burning again. What he would give to fight Malfoy one-on-one...

"So what did Professor Slughorn want?" Hermione asked.

"To know what really happened at the Ministry." said Harry.

"Him and everyone else here," sniffed Hermione. "People were interrogating us about it on the train, weren't they, Ron?"

"Yeah," said Ron. "All wanting to know if you really are 'the Chosen One' —"

"There has been much talk on that very subject even amongst the ghosts," interrupted Nearly Headless Nick, inclining his barely connected head toward Harry so that it wobbled dangerously on its ruff. "I am considered something of a Potter authority; it is widely known that we are friendly. I have assured the spirit community that I will not pester you for information, however. 'Harry Potter knows that he can confide in me with complete confidence,' I told them. 'I would rather die than betray his trust." Harry smiled at the end of it, and looked over to Juliunna. She gave a loud exhale, and then obviously fell into a deep sleep.

"That's nor saying much, seeing as you're already dead," Ron observed.

"Once again, you show all the sensitivity of a blunt axe," said Nearly Headless Nick in affronted tones, and he rose into the air glided back toward the far end of the Gryffindor table just as Dumbledore got to his feet at the staff table. The talk and laughter echoing around the Hall died away almost instantly.

"The very best of evenings to you!" he said, smiling broadly, his arms opened wide as though to embrace the whole room.

"What happened to his hand?" gasped Hermione.

She was not the only one who had noticed. Dumbledore's right hand was as blackened and dead-looking as it had been on the night he had come to fetch Harry from the Dursleys. Whispers it the room; Dumbledore, interpreting them correctly, merely smiled and shook his purple-and-gold sleeve over his injury.

"Nothing to worry about," he said airily. "Now ... to our new students, welcome, to our old students, welcome back! Another year full of magical education awaits you . .."

"His hand was like that when I saw him over the summer,"

Harry whispered to Hermione. "I thought he'd have cured it by now, though ... or Madam Pomfrey would've done."

"It looks as if it's died," said Hermione, with a nauseated expression. "But there are some injuries you can't cure... old curses…and there are poisons without antidotes. . . ."

". . . and Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to say that there is a blanket ban on any joke items bought at the shop called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

"Those wishing to play for their House Quidditch teams should give their names to their Heads of House as usual. We are also looking for new Quidditch commentators, who should do likewise.

"We are pleased to welcome a new member of staff this year, Professor Slughorn"— Slughorn stood up, his bald head gleaming in the candlelight, his big waist coated belly casting the table into shadow — "is a former colleague of mine who has agreed resume his old post of Potions master."

"Potions?"

"Potions?"

The word echoed all over the Hall as people wondered whether they had heard right.

"Potions?" said Ron and Hermione together, turning to stare Harry. "But you said —"

"Professor Snape, meanwhile," said Dumbledore, raising voice so that it carried over all the muttering, "will be taking the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"No!" said Harry, so loudly that many heads turned in his direction. He did not care; he was staring up at the staff table, incensed. How could Snape be given the Defense Against the Dark Arts job after all this time? Hadn't it been widely known for years that Dumbledore did not trust him to do it?

"But Harry, you said that Slughorn was going to be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts!" said Hermione.

"I thought he was!" said Harry, racking his brains to remember when Dumbledore had told him this, but now that he came to think of it, he was unable to recall Dumbledore ever telling him what Slughorn would be teaching.

Snape, who was sitting on Dumbledore's right, did not stand up his mention of his name; he merely raised a hand in lazy acknowledgment of the applause from the Slytherin table, yet Harry was sure he could detect a look of triumph on the features he loathed so much.

"Well, there's one good thing," he said savagely. "Snape'll be gone by the end of the year."

"What do you mean?" asked Ron.

"That job's jinxed. No ones lasted more than a year. . . . Quirrel actually died doing it. . . . Personally, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for another death. . . ."

"Harry!" said Hermione, shocked and reproachful.

"He might just go back to teaching Potions at the end of the year" said Ron reasonably. "That Slughorn bloke might not want to stay long-term. Moody didn't."

"Dumbledore cleared his throat. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were not the only ones who had been talking; the whole Hall had erupted in a buzz of conversation at the news that Snape had finally achieved his heart's desire. Seemingly oblivious to the sensational nature of the news he had just imparted, Dumbledore said nothing more about staff appointments, but waited a few seconds to ensure that the silence was absolute before continuing.

"Now, as everybody in this Hall knows, Lord Voldemort and his followers are once more at large and gaining in strength."

The silence seemed to tauten and strain as Dumbledore spoke. Harry glanced at Malfoy. Malfoy was not looking at Dumbledore, but making his fork hover in midair with his wand, as though he found the headmaster's words unworthy of his attention.

"I cannot emphasize strongly enough how dangerous the present situation is, and how much care each of us at Hogwarts must take to ensure that we remain safe. The castle's magical fortifications have been strengthened over the summer, we are protected in new and more powerful ways, but we must still guard scrupulously against carelessness on the part of any student or member of staff. I urge you, therefore, to abide by any security restrictions that you teachers might impose upon you, however irksome you might find them — in particular, the rule that you are not to be out of after hours. I implore you, should you notice anything strange or suspicious within or outside the castle, to report it to a member of staff immediately. I trust you to conduct yourselves, always, with the utmost regard for your own and others' safety."

Dumbledore's blue eyes swept over the students before he smiled once more.

"But now, your beds await, as warm and comfortable as you could possibly wish, and I know that your top priority is to be well-rested for your lessons tomorrow. Let us therefore say good night. Pip pip!"

With the usual deafening scraping noise, the benches moved back and the hundreds of students began to file out of the Great Hall toward their dormitories. Harry clapped Juliunna on the shoulder hard. "I think you have to show the fist years where to go." He said.

"Thanks." She said sleepily.

Harry, who was in no hurry at all to leave with the gawping crowd, nor to get near enough to Malfoy to allow him to retell the story of the nose-stamping, lagged behind, pretending to retie the lace on his trainer, allowing most of Gryffindors to draw ahead of him. Juliunna walked over to the Slytherin table for all of the lost looking first years.

"First years. Follow me." She yelled aloud. Harry watched the curious first years hurry to follow her.

Hermione darted ahead to fulfill her prefect's duty of shepherding the first years, but Ron remained with Harry.

"What really happened to your nose?" he asked, once they were at the very back of the throng pressing out of the Hall, and out of earshot of anyone else.

Harry told him. It was a mark of the strength of their friendship that Ron did not laugh.

"I saw Malfoy miming something to do with a nose," he said darkly.

"Yeah, well, never mind that," said Harry bitterly. "Listen to what he was saying before he found out I was there . . . ."

Harry had expected Ron to be stunned by Malfoys boasts. With what Harry considered pure pigheadedness, however, Ron was unimpressed.

"Come on, Harry, he was just showing off for Juliunna….

What kind of mission would You-Know-Who have given him?"

"How d'you know Voldemort doesn't need someone at Hogwarts? It wouldn't be the first —"

"I wish you'd stop saying' that name, Harry," said a reproachful voice behind them. Harry looked over his shoulder to see Hagrid shaking his head.

"Dumbledore uses that name," said Harry stubbornly

"Yeah, well, that's Dumbledore, innit?" said Hagrid mysteriously.

"So how come yeh were late, Harry? I was worried."

"Got held up on the train," said Harry. "Why were you late?"

"I was with Grawp," said Hagrid happily. "Los' track o' the time. He's got a new home up in the mountains now, Dumbledore fixed it — nice big cave. He's much happier than he was in the forest. We were having' a good chat."

"Really?" said Harry, taking care not to catch Ron's eye; the last time he had met Hagrid's half-brother, a vicious giant with a talent for ripping up trees by the roots, his vocabulary had comprised five words, two of which he was unable to pronounce properly.

"Oh yeah, he's really come on," said Hagrid proudly. "You'll be amazed. I'm thinking' o' trainin' him up as me assistant."

Ron snorted loudly, but managed to pass it off as a violent sneeze. They were now standing beside the oak front doors.

"Anyway, I'll see yeh tomorrow, firs' lesson's straight after lunch. Come early an' yeh can say hello ter Buck — I mean, Witherwings!"

Raising an arm in cheery farewell, he headed out of the doors into the darkness.

Harry and Ron looked at each other. Harry could tell that he was experiencing the same sinking feeling as himself.

"You're not taking Care of Magical Creatures, are you?"

Ron shook his head. "And you're not either, are you?"

Harry shook his head too.

"And Hermione," said Ron, "she's not, is she?"

Harry shook his head again. Exactly what Hagrid would say when he realized his three favorite students had given up his subject, he did not like to think.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

**Normal Pov**

Harry and Ron met Hermione in the common room before breakfast next morning. Hoping for some support in his theory, Harry lost no time in telling Hermione what he had overheard Malfoy saying on the Hogwarts Express.

"But he was obviously showing off for Juliunna, wasn't he?" interjected Ron quickly, before Hermione could say anything.

"Well," she said uncertainly, "I don't know. ... It would be like Malfoy make himself seem more important than he is ... but that's a big lie to tell. . . ."

"Exactly," said Harry, but he could nor press the point, because so many people were trying to listen in to his conversation, not to mention staring at him and whispering behind their hands.

"It's rude to point," Ron snapped at a particularly minuscule first-year boy as they joined the queue to climb out of the portrait hole. The boy, who had been muttering something about Harry behind his hand to his friend, promptly turned scarlet and toppled out of the hole in alarm. Ron sniggered. "I love being a sixth year. And were going to be getting free time this year. Whole periods when we can just sit up here and relax."

"We're going to need that time for studying, Ron!" said Hermione, as they set off down the corridor.

"Yeah, but not today," said Ron. "Today's going to be a real doss, I reckon."

…

Juliunna greeted the Golden Trio with a tight hug in the Great Hall.. "How are you guys doing?" She asked, her voice light and cheerful. Harry laughed as they all sat down at the Gryffindor Table. "Glad to see your in a good mood. So anyway, yeah, we're fine. Though we are a little worried about Hagrid." Harry said, and in low murmur, told her about how Hagrid was going to be crushed when he realized that they weren't taking his class.

"What if no one does?" Hermione said.

"I am." Juliunna said, and took out her **N.E.W.T** Papers. "Father told Snape to sign me up for the classes he approved. You know, the ones worth while. I've got Hagrid's class, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, I bet he's gonna be taking me on his missions when I'm ready, as some sort of father and daughter bonding thing. It'll probably be dangerous. So yeah, Defense Against the Dark, Arithmacy, and Ancient Runes. Potions is going to be a right wreck. It's bad enough I have to look at him during the day." Juliunna huffed.

"Oh yeah, you were asleep. Snape's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Slughorn's got potions.

"Oh… Oh." She sighed. "Anyway, did you know that it's only been our first day, and Snape says that I've got thirty two sign ups for Quidditch. Are you kidding me?!" She sighed.

"Heh, is Quidditch really that popular?" Harry asked. Juliunna sighed and leaned her head on her hand.

"Pansy let it slip that I'm the Dark Lord's Daughter because she got jealous, and now everyone wants a chance to get close to me over there. That's why I'm not sitting with them." Juliunna explained grimly.

"How'd she know?" Hermione asked.

"Draco told her. And Crabbe and Goyle, and Blaise." Juliunna sighed. Draco swears that he thought Pansy would keep the secret, but I know better." Juliunna snarled.

"I don't think he's good for you." Ron said. Harry remembered what Draco and her were arguing about on the train.

"Juliunna… Did you really kiss Ron?" Harry asked. Hermione turned to Ron, her eyes wide and her jaw slackened. "Well?" Hermione laughed. But it was cold and not at all friendly.

"Oh Harry, I was teaching him how to kiss out of pity." Juliunna said with a shrug. Ron, who was staring at the table, stopped eating.

An hour later they reluctantly left the sunlit common room for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom four floors below. Hermione and Juliunna were already queuing outside, each carrying an armful of heavy books and looking put-upon.

"We got so much homework for Runes," Juliunna said anxiously when Harry and Ron joined her. "A fifteen-inch essay, two translations, and we've got to read these by Wednesday!"

"Shame," yawned Ron.

"You wait," Hermione said resentfully. "I bet Snape gives us loads."

The classroom door opened as she spoke, and Snape stepped into the corridor, his sallow face framed as ever by two curtains of greasy black hair. Silence fell over the queue immediately.

"Inside," he said.

Harry looked around as they entered. Snape had imposed his personality upon the room already; it was gloomier than usual, as curtains had been drawn over the windows, and was lit by candlelight. New pictures adorned the walls, many of them showing people who appeared to be in pain, sporting grisly injuries or strangely contorted body parts. Nobody spoke as they settled down, looking around at the shadowy, gruesome pictures.

"I have not asked you to take out your books," said Snape, closing the door and moving to face the class from behind his desk; Hermione hastily dropped her copy of Confronting the Faceless back into her bag and stowed it under her chair. "I wish to speak to you, and I want your fullest attention."

His black eyes roved over their upturned faces, lingering for a fraction of a second longer on Harry's than anyone else's.

"You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe."

_You believe . . . like you haven't watched them all come and go, hoping you'd be next,_ thought Harry scathingly.

Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. Given this confusion I am surprised so many of you scraped an . in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the **N.E.W.T.** work, which will be more advanced."

Snape set off around the edge of the room, speaking now in a lower voice; the class craned their necks to keep him in view. The Dark Arts," said Snape, "are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible."

Harry stared at Snape. It was surely one thing to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous enemy, another to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice?

"Your defenses," said Snape, a little louder, "must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures - he indicated a few of them as he swept past - Give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse" - he waved a hand toward a witch who was clearly shrieking in agony - "feel the Dementor's Kiss" - a wizard lying huddled and blank-eyed, slumped against a wall - "or provoke the aggression of the Inferius" - a bloody mass upon ground.

"Has an Inferius been seen, then?" said Parvati Patil in a high pitched voice. "Is it definite, is he using them?"

"The Dark Lord has used Inferi in the past," said Snape, "which means you would be well-advised to assume he might use them again. Now. . . "

"No." Juliunna said, and Snape and everyone else turned to her. "Anything you'd like to add on the subject, Miss Riddle?" He said lightly, his lips curling.

"I don't believe my father will use the Inferi. He has multiple forms of alliances, both human and non human, to near human intelligence, and to those of animal like brains, and I know for sure that he wouldn't like to be relying on corpses that could be taken down with the simple power of fire. I know for a fact that mere first years could conjure fire. He wouldn' go for that. I do however believe," Juliunna said leaning forward. "That he would use them as one of many different forms to guard something. He's killed enough to make an army, but their weakness is simple. I feel he regrets using them. Their so weak, and easy to get by." Juliunna smirked as she talked, her own lip curling. Snape smirked.

"Well looks like you have the Dark Lord all figured out."

"I don't pretend to know that I know everything about him, but I do know that." Juliunna scoffed. Harry looked around. The Slytherins were staring at her in inspirational awe.

"Miss Riddle, I suggest that you shut your mouth. We already have a _Know it all_ in this class, we don't need two. Isn't that right Mrs. Granger?" Snape said, his eyes flickering over Hermione, who scowled.

"You know, your constant habit of picking on the Gryffindors makes me think that this is rooted deeper." Juliunna said, and Snape turned to her. He seemed to be daring her to continue speaking. "I bet your taking it out on us because of what happened all those years ago, back when you were in school. You bully us, because you yourself was on the receiving end-!"

Harry clamped his hand over Juliunna's mouth, but it was too late.

"Get. Out." Snape said.

"Oh, have I touched a nerve?" Juliunna said. She didn't smirk, and she didn't gloat. Her eyes were glittering with malice, her voice completely serious and dead. Draco Malfoy had never been more attracted to her then at this moment.

"One week. Detention." Snape snarled at her. Juliunna smirked. "Whatever Snape a doodle." She shrugged. She stood up, grabbed her books, and promptly walked out of the class.

**Later on at Dinner**

"Harry! Hey, Harry!"

Harry looked around; Jack Sloper, one of the Beaters on last year's Gryffindor Quidditch team, was hurrying toward him holding a roll of parchment.

"For you," panted Sloper. "Listen, I heard you're the new Captain. When're you holding trials?"

"I'm not sure yet," said Harry, thinking privately that Sloper would be very lucky to get back on the team. "I'll let you know."

"Oh, right. I was hoping it'd be this weekend -"

But Harry was not listening; he had just recognized the thin, slanting writing on the parchment. Leaving Sloper in mid-sentence, he hurried away with Ron and Hermione, unrolling the parchment as he went.

_**Dear Harry,**_

_**I would like to start our private lessons this Saturday. Kindly come along to my office at 8 P.M. I hope you are enjoying your first day back at school.**_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Albus Dumbledore**_

_**P.S. I enjoy Acid Pops.**_

"He enjoys Acid Pops?" said Ron, who had read the message over Harry's shoulder and was looking perplexed.

"It's the password to get past the gargoyle outside his study," said Juliunna in a low voice, appearing over Hermione's shoulder..

"Ha! Snape's not going to be pleased. . . . I won't be able to do his detention!" Harry chuckled. When Juliunna raised an eyebrow, Harry explained that he was given detention from Snape for sheer cheek.

He, Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione sent the whole of break speculating on what Dumbledore would teach Harry. Ron thought it most likely to be spectacular jinxes and hexes of the type the Death Eaters would not know. Hermione said such things were illegal, and thought it much more likely that Dumbledore wanted to teach Harry advanced Defensive magic. After break, she and Juliunna went off to Arithmacy while Harry and Ron returned to the common room where they grudgingly started Snape's homework. This turned out to be so complex that they still had not finished when Hermione joined them for their after-lunch free period (though she considerably speeded up the process). They had only just finished when the bell rang for the afternoon's double Potions and they beat the familiar path down to the dungeon classroom that had, for so long, been Snape's.

When they arrived in the corridor and stood next to Juliunna, they saw that there were only a dozen people progressing to N.E.W.T. level. Crabbe and Goyle had evidently failed to achieve the required O.W.L. grade, but four Slytherins had made it through, including Malfoy. Four Ravenclaw were there, and one Hufflepuff, Ernie Macmillan, whom Harry liked despite his rather pompous manner.

"Harry," Ernie said portentously, holding out his hand as Harry approached, "Didn't get a chance to speak in Defense Against The Dark Arts this morning. Good lesson, I thought, but Shield Charms are old hat, of course, for us old D.A. lags . . . And how are you, Ron, new girl, Hermione?"

Before they could say more than "fine," the dungeon door opened and Slughorn's belly preceded him out of the door. As they filed into the room, his great walrus mustache curved above his beaming mouth, and he greeted Harry and Zabini with particular enthusiasm.

"Hmm." Juliunna said, staring around at the room. "I like it here now." She said with a smile. "I didn't like it back then, though." She laughed softly.

"With Snape?" Both Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ernie said.

"Yep." She smirked, rolling her eyes.

The dungeon was, most unusually, already full of vapors and odd smells. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sniffed interestedly as they passed large, bubbling cauldrons. Juliunna and the three Slytherins took a table together, as did the four Ravenclaw. This left Harry, Ron, and Hermione to share a table with Ernie. They chose the one nearest a gold-colored cauldron that was emitting one of the most seductive scents Harry had ever inhaled: Somehow it reminded him simultaneously of treacle tart, the woody smell of a broomstick handle, and something flowery he thought he might have smelled at the Burrow. He found that he was breathing very slowly and deeply and that the potion's fumes seemed to be filling him up like drink. A great contentment stole over him; he grinned across at Ron, who grinned back lazily.

"Now then, now then, now then," said Slughorn, whose massive outline was quivering through the many shimmering vapors. "Scales out, everyone, and potion kits, and don't forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making. . . ."

"Sir?" said Harry, raising his hand.

"Harry, m'boy?"

"I haven't got a book or scales or anything - nor's Ron - we didn't realize we'd be able to do the N.E.W.T., you see -"

"Ah, yes, Professor McGonagall did mention . . . not to worry, my dear boy, not to worry at all. You can use ingredients from the store cupboard today, and I'm sure we can lend you some scales, and we've got a small stock of old books here, they'll do until you can write to Flourish and Blotts. . . ."

Slughorn strode over to a corner cupboard and, after a moment's foraging, emerged with two very battered-looking copies of Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage, which he gave to Harry and Ron along with two sets of tarnished scales.

"Now then," said Slughorn, returning to the front of the class and inflating his already bulging chest so that the buttons on his waistcoat threatened to burst off, "I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of thing you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of 'em, even if you haven't made 'em yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?"

He indicated the cauldron nearest the Slytherin table. Harry raised himself slightly in his seat and saw what looked like plain water boiling away inside it.

Hermione's well-practiced hand hit the air before anybody else's; Slughorn pointed at her.

"It's Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the, drinker to tell the truth," said Hermione.

"Very good, very good!" said Slughorn happily. "Now," he continued, pointing at the cauldron nearest the Ravenclaw table, "this one here is pretty well known. . . . Featured in a few Ministry leaflets lately too . . . Who can - ?"

Hermione's hand was fastest once more.

"it's Polyjuice Potion, sir," she said.

Harry too had recognized the slow-bubbling, mud like substance the second cauldron, but did not resent Hermione getting the credit for answering the question; she, after all, was the one who had succeeded in making it, back in their second year. "Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here . . . yes, you dear?" said Slughorn, looking over to Juliunna, who had managed to punch her hand into the air before Hermione.

"It is Amortentia."

"It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask," said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, "but I assume you know what it does?"

It's the most powerful love potion in the world!" said Hermione, bursting out. "Yes, yes it is Hermione." Juliunna chuckled. "But of course, it doesn't produce actual love. It is impossible to create genuine love from a potion or magic itself. No, but it will create a powerful infatuation, or obsession. It's probably the most dangerous potion in here." Juliunna said with a smirk.

"Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?"

"And the steam rising in characteristic spirals," said Juliunna dull. "And it's supposed to smell differently to each of according to what attracts us. Hermione darling, what do you smell?" Juliunna asked dully, turning around.

" I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and -" Hermione shut her mouth instantly.

'May I ask your name, my dears?" Professor Slughorn asked.

"Juliunna, and Hermione Granger." Juliunna said, jetting her head towards Hermione, who was still pink. "Really sir, you have to give her half the credit, I believe Hermione taught me everything I knew about it mere weeks ago. We're study partners you see." Juliunna smirked.

"Ah, a modest Slytherin, you don't see many of those. Wait, Granger? Granger? Can you possibly be related to Hector Dagworth-Granger, who founded the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers?"

"No. I don't think so, sir. I'm Muggle-born, you see."

Harry saw Malfoy lean close to Nott and whisper something; both of them sniggered, but Slughorn showed no dismay; on the contrary, he beamed and looked from Hermione to Harry, who was sitting next to her.

"Oho! _'One of my best friends is Muggle-born, and she's the best in our year!' _I'm assuming this is the very friend of whom you spoke, Harry?"

"Yes, sir," said Harry.

"Well, well, take twenty well-earned points for Gryffindor, Miss Granger, and twenty points to Slytherin for explaining that potion for me," said Slughorn genially. Harry turned to Juliunna just as Slughorn did. "And you, do you have any relatives that are well known? You sort of remind me of someone I knew, someone who I can't think about right now. It's curious. I'm wondering where you got your talent of intelligence from."

"Well you see Professor, it's kind of complicated. Yes I do have a wildly known ancestor, he's kind of a Dark Lord?"

"Kind of?" Draco muttered in her ear.

"It's Lord Voldemort. He's my father. I actually met him over the summer." Juliunna said with a smile. "He was pretty nice. Fixed up some classes for me. I'm far from poor."

"You Know Who?" Slughorn gasped, and Harry noticed that the other three Slytherins, including Malfoy, were leaning into her side as if she herself was Amortentia.

"Eh? Um, yes. I was kidnapped from the safe house Dumbledore put me in. Bellatrix Lestrange and her friends, including a werewolf grabbed me from the Weasley's house. But it was an unauthorized order, and he sent me back. He said he'll have time to be a father when he takes over the Ministry." Juliunna said. "Sometime next summer, he said."

"Oh my." Slughorn said, clutching his chest. "And he sent you back, you said?"

"Yes."

"You were face to face with Bellatrix Lestrange, Death Eaters, and Werewolves … Did you talk to the Ministry about this?"

"No, but Dumbledore took care of it." Juliunna said, and Slughorn exhaled. She smiled. "Well, if Dumbledore isn't worried, it's fine. Weasleys. Do you know my good student, Ginny Weasley?'

"Ginerva? Well I suppose so. We shared a room almost all Summer."

"That's her real name?"

"Yes, but her mother only calls her that when she's being strict." Juliunna laughed.

"You know, Miss Riddle, maybe, just maybe, you'd like to come to the Slug Club?" Slughorn smiled. Juliunna frowned.

"I'm sorry but no. I don't like to touch them. I'm very easily grossed out by slugs-!"

"Oh dear you are a card! No, my name is Slughorn, and I hold a club for the most talented students in the school." He laughed.

"Oh, well that seems okay." Juliunna shrugged. Next to her, Draco scowled.

"I won't take no for an answer. Oh, do you know Mr. Potter and Miss Granger as much as you know Miss Weasley?"

"Yes. We spent the summer in the same house, and a two weeks in Hogwarts together. We're quite well friends, I say." Juliunna smiled.

"Oh, you'll do well in the Slug club. Now, everyone, onto work."

…

"Congratulations Harry." Juliunna said genuinely, much to Harry's shock. He thought if anyone, Juliunna would have been the most annoyed. Instead, she seemed the happiest. Hermione was continuing to blast him off every chance she got.

"How'd you do it?" Hermione grumbled.

_The Half Blood Prince._ He thought to himself. "I tell you in the common room." Harry whispered to Hermione.

"But I want to know too." Juliunna said. Harry sighed and he, Hermione, Juliunna, and Ron walked a little way back and leaned against a corner.

"Make it quick, Draco's waiting for me." Juliunna noted. Draco was leaning against the potions room door, looking at her suspiciously. She nodded at him, and then turned to Harry.

"The book Slughorn gave to me. It's filled with new revisions. Hand written stuff, you know."

"Bloody brilliant." Juliunna smirked, tapping him on the shoulder.

"They weren't official instructions." Hermione grumbled. "It could have ended very badly."

"Oh Hermione, don't be such a nark. Harry took a chance and it turned out great." Juliunna said with a smile.

…

It was after his meeting with Dumbledore, that Harry got back to the Gryffindor Common Room. He told Hermione and Ron everything. About how he was delving into Lord Voldemort's pass.

"Should we keep it from-!"

"Dumbledore said I could tell her." Harry said with a shrug, silencing Hermione.

As Hermione had predicted not too long ago, the sixth years' many free periods were not the hours of blissful relaxation Ron had anticipated, but times in which to attempt to keep up with the vast amount of homework they were being set. Not only were they studying as though they had exams every day, but the lessons them-selves had become more demanding than ever before. Harry barely understood half of what Professor McGonagall said to them these days; even Hermione had had to ask her to repeat instructions once or twice. Incredibly, and to Hermione's increasing resentment, Harry's best subject had suddenly become Potions, thanks to the _Half-Blood Prince_.

Nonverbal spells were now expected, not only in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but in Charms and Transfiguration too. Harry frequently looked over at his classmates in the common room or at mealtimes to see them purple in the face and straining as though they had overdosed on U-No-Poo; but he knew that they were really struggling to make spells work without saying incantations aloud. It was a relief to get outside into the greenhouses; they were dealing with more dangerous plants than ever in Herbology, but at least they were still allowed to swear loudly if the Venomous Tentacula seized them unexpectedly from behind.

One result of their enormous workload and the frantic hours of practicing nonverbal spells was that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had so far been unable to find time to go and visit Hagrid. He had stopped coming to meals at the staff table, an ominous sign, and on the few occasions when they had passed him in the corridors or out in the grounds, he had mysteriously failed to notice them or hear their greetings.

"He's sad." Juliunna explained to Harry one sunny afternoon. The front of her robes were ripped. She had explained that Hagrid had her feeding Witherwings as warm up, and Buckbeak got carried away when she got the dead rat stuck on her shirt.

"He hates us now, doesn't he?" Harry sighed.

"No. I really wish you guys would have joined in, at least for the sake of your friend. He doesn't even think of it as a class. Since its only me, he takes me into the Forbidden Forest like its an Apprentices job. Showing me the creatures and the sights, like we're the best of friends. He's got a map of creatures and their habitats littered all over the forest! I heard him muttering to himself that as an end of the year exam he might make me go into the Forbidden Forest and find as much as I could!" Juliunna squeaked.

"Now you get why we don't take the class?" Ron smirked, and Hermione jetted him in the stomach with her elbow. Hagrid had just walked by. "Hello Juliunna." He said with a smile. He threw a cold look at the Golden Trio, and continued on. "Hi Hagrid! Nice class today!" Juliunna waved.

Harry sighed and plucked a piece of dead rat out of Juliunna's hair.

…

For or the rest of the week's Potions lessons Harry continued to follow the Half-Blood Prince's instructions wherever they deviated from Libatius Borage's, with the result that by their fourth lesson Slughorn was raving about Harry's abilities, saying that he had rarely taught anyone so talented. Neither Ron nor Hermione was delighted by this. Although Harry had offered to share his book with both of them, Ron had more difficulty deciphering the handwriting than Harry did, and could not keep asking Harry to read aloud or it might look suspicious. Hermione, meanwhile, was resolutely plowing on with what she called the 'Official' instructions, but becoming increasingly bad-tempered as they yielded poorer results than the Prince's.

"We've got to go and explain," said Hermione, looking up at Hagrid's huge empty chair at the staff table the following Saturday at breakfast.

"We've got Quidditch tryouts this morning!" said Ron. "And we're supposed to be practicing that Augimenti Charm from Flitwick! Anyway, explain what? How are we going to tell him we hated his stupid subject?"

"We didn't hate it!" said Hermione.

"Speak for yourself, I haven't forgotten the skrewts," said Ron darkly. "And I'm telling you now, we've had a narrow escape. You didn't hear him going on about his gormless brother — we'd have been teaching Grawp how to tie his shoelaces if we'd stayed."

"I hate not talking to Hagrid," said Hermione, looking upset.

"We'll go down after Quidditch," Harry assured her. He too was missing Hagrid, although like Ron he thought that they were better off without Grawp in their lives. "But trials might take all morning, the number of people who have applied." He felt slightly nervous at confronting the first hurdle of his Captaincy. "I dunno why the team's this popular all of a sudden."

**Dinner Time**

"Ah." Juliunna moaned, clutching her head. "What's wrong?" Ron said as he, Harry, and Hermione took a seat next to her at the Gryffindor Table.

"I don't want to be Slytherin anymore! They keep coming up to me and dropping subtle hints about Quidditch. And they give me gifts and act all nice, trying to guilt me into accepting them into the team. It gets terribly exhausting." Juliunna groaned. "I'm terribly tired guys. It's going to be completely crazy having to manage fifthy people." She yawned, grabbing a slice of marmalade toast.

"Fifthy?" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow. "Yes! Fifthy." Juliunna sighed. "I put up the Quidditch Notice in the common room yesterday, and Professor Snape put up the Quidditch sign up sheet in the common room too. And there are exactly fifthy people signed up, as of this morning." Juliunna sighed.

"Well we'll be there. Besides, its good to spy on your moves at earliness, so we know what we're dealing with." Ron chuckled. Hermione elbowed him again. Slughorn was heading over to the table.

"Harry, Harry, just the man I was hoping to see!" He boomed genially, twiddling the ends of his walrus mustache and puffing out his enormous belly, "I was hoping to catch you before dinner! What do you say to a spot of supper tonight in my room instead? We're having a little party, just a few rising stars, I've got McLaggen coming and Zabini, the charming Melinda Bobbin — I don't know whether you know her? Her family owns a large chain of apothecaries — and, of course, I hope very much that Miss Granger will favor me by coming too. Miss Riddle, you'll be there." He smiled.

Slughorn made Hermione and Juliunna a little bow as he finished speaking. It was as though Ron was not present; Slughorn did not so much as look at him.

"I can't come, Professor," said Harry at once. "I've got a detention with Professor Snape."

"Oh dear!" said Slughorn, his face falling comically. "Dear, dear, I was counting on you, Harry! Well, now, I'll just have to have a word with Severus and explain the situation. I'm sure I'll be able to persuade him to postpone your detention. Yes, I'll see you three later!" He bustled away out of the Hall.

"He's got no chance of persuading Snape," said Harry, the moment Slughorn was out of earshot. "This detentions already been postponed once; Snape did it for Dumbledore, but he won't do it for anyone else."

"Oh, I wish you could come, I don't want to go on my own!" said Hermione anxiously; Harry knew that she was thinking about McLaggen.

"I know." Juliunna said, rolling her eyes.

"I doubt you'll be alone, Ginny'll probably be invited," snapped Ron, who did not seem to have taken kindly to being ignored by Slughorn.

"Hogsmead Weekend coming up." Juliunna said with a smile.

"Want to join us there?" Ron yawned.

"Yes." She nodded lightly.

"Oy!" Malfoy snapped. Harry's hand had been trekking along Juliunna's shoulder, trying to pick out a glowing blue reside. It looked like spilt, glowing glitter.

"What?!" Harry snapped, taking it out of Juliunna's hair.

"Forest again?"

"Yeah, what's that?! Did you just pull that out of my hair?!" Juliunna snapped. Harry was holding a miniscule Cornish pixie in his hand. "Yep." He said with a smile.

Draco appeared over at the table and pulled her over to the Slytherin side, scowling widely.

After dinner Ron, Harry, and Hermione made their way back to Gryffindor Tower. The common room was very crowded, as most people had finished dinner by now, but they managed to find a free table and sat down; Ron, who had been in a bad mood ever since the encounter with Slughorn, folded his arms and frowned at the ceiling. Hermione reached out for a copy of the Evening Prophet, which somebody had left abandoned on a chair.

"Anything new?" said Harry.

"Not really. . ." Hermione had opened the newspaper and was scanning the inside pages. "Oh, look, your dad's in here, Ron — he's all right!" she added quickly, for Ron had looked around in alarm. "It just says he's been to visit the Malfoys' house_. 'This second search of the Death Eaters residence does not seem to have yielded any results. Arthur Weasley of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects said that his team had been acting upon a confidential tip-off.'_"

"Yeah, mine!" said Harry. "I told him at Kings Cross about Malfoy and that thing he was trying to get Borgin to fix! Well, if it's not at their house, he must have brought whatever it is to Hogwarts with him —"

"But how can he have done, Harry?" said Hermione, putting down the newspaper with a surprised look. "We were all searched when we arrived, weren't we?"

"Were you?" said Harry, taken aback. "I wasn't!"

"Oh no, of course you weren't, I forgot you were late. Well, Filch ran over all of us with Secrecy Sensors when we got into the entrance hall. Any Dark object would have been found, I know for a fact Crabbe had a shrunken head confiscated. So you see, Malfoy can't have brought in anything dangerous!"

Momentarily stymied, Harry watched Ginny Weasley playing with Arnold the Pygmy Puff for a while before seeing a way around this objection.

"Someone's sent it to him by owl, then," he said. "His mother or someone."

"All the owls are being checked too," said Hermione. "Filch told us so when he was jabbing those Secrecy Sensors everywhere he could reach."

Really stumped this time, Harry found nothing else to say. There did not seem to be any way Malfoy could have brought a dangerous or Dark object into the school. He looked hopefully at Ron, who was sitting with his arms folded, staring over at Lavender Brown.

"Can you think of any way Malfoy — ?"

"Oh, drop it, Harry," said Ron.

"Listen, it's not my fault Slughorn invited Hermione and me to his stupid party, neither of us wanted to go, you know!" said Harry, firing up.

"Well, as I'm not invited to any parties," said Ron, getting to his feet again, "I think I'll go to bed."

He stomped off toward the door to the boys' dormitories, leaving Harry and Hermione staring after him.

"Harry?" said the new Chaser, Demelza Robins, appearing suddenly at his shoulder. "I've got a message for you."

"From Professor Slughorn?" asked Harry, sitting up hopefully.

"No .. . from Professor Snape," said Demelza. Harry's heart sank. "He says you're to come to his office at half past eight tonight to do your detention — er — no matter how many party invitations you've received. And he wanted you to know you'll be sorting out rotten flobberworms from good ones, to use in Potions and — and he says there's no need to bring protective gloves."

"Right," said Harry grimly. "Thanks a lot, Demelza."

…

Filch was standing at the oak front doors as usual, checking off the names of people who had permission to go into Hogsmeade. The process took even longer than normal as Filch was triple-checking everybody with his Secrecy Sensor.

"What does it matter if we're smuggling Dark stuff **OUT**?" Demanded Ron, eyeing the long thin Secrecy Sensor with apprehension. "Surely you ought to be checking what we bring back **IN**?"

His cheek earned him a few extra jabs with the Sensor, and he was still wincing as they stepped out into the wind and sleet.

…

The walk into Hogsmeade was not enjoyable. Harry wrapped his scarf over his lower face; the exposed part soon felt both raw and numb. Juliunna looked as if she was striding through a marathon in the middle of a twister. The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. More than once Harry wondered whether they might not have had a better time in the warm common room, and when they finally reached Hogsmeade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Harry took it as confirmation that this trip was not destined to be fun. Ron pointed, with a thickly gloved hand, toward Honeydukes, which was mercifully open, and Harry, Juliunna, and Hermione staggered in his wake into the crowded shop.

"Thank God," shivered Ron as they were enveloped by warm, toffee-scented air. "Let's stay here all afternoon."

"Harry, m'boy!" said a booming voice from behind them.

"Oh no," muttered Harry. The three of them turned to see Professor Slughorn, who was wearing an enormous furry hat and an overcoat with matching fur collar, clutching a large bag of crystallized pineapple, and occupying at least a quarter of the shop.

"Harry, that's three of my little suppers you've missed now!" said Slughorn, poking him genially in the chest. "It won't do, m'boy, I'm determined to have you! Miss Granger and Juliunna loves them, don't you?"

"Yes," said Hermione helplessly, "they're really —"

"So why don't you come along, Harry?" demanded Slughorn.

"Well, I've had Quidditch practice, Professor," said Harry, who had indeed been scheduling practices every time Slughorn had sent him a little, violet ribbon-adorned invitation. This strategy meant that Ron was not left out, and they usually had a laugh with Ginny, imagining Hermione shut up with McLaggen and Zabini.

"Well, I certainly expect you to win your first match after all the, hard work!" said Slughorn. "But a little recreation never hurt any body. Now, how about Monday night, you can't possibly want to practice in this weather..."

"I can't, Professor, I've got — er — an appointment with Professor Dumbledore that evening."

"Unlucky again!" cried Slughorn dramatically. "Ah, well . . . you can't evade me forever, Harry! Goodbye Juliunna, you too Miss Granger."

And with a regal wave, he waddled out of the shop, taking as little notice of Ron as though he had been a display of Cockroach Clusters.

"I can't believe you've wriggled out of another one," said Hermione, shaking her head. "They're not that bad, you know. . . They're even quite fun sometimes. . . ." But then she caught sight of Ron's expression. "Oh, look — they've got deluxe sugar quills — those would last hours!"

"Harry, could you spot me a gallon? Mrs. Weasley forgot to mail me my money. I promise I'll pay you back."  
"Don't, you don't need to." He said. He bought her two boxes of extra large sugar quills, and told her to shut up when she insisted to that she wanted to pay him.

Glad that Hermione and Juliunna had changed the subject, Harry showed much more interest in the new extra-large sugar quills than he would normally have done, but Ron continued to look moody and merely shrugged when Hermione asked him where he wanted to go next.

"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks," said Harry. "It'll be warm."

They bundled their scarves back over their faces and left the sweetshop. The bitter wind was like knives on their faces after the sugary warmth of Honeydukes. The street was not very busy; no body was lingering to chat, just hurrying toward their destinations. The exceptions were two men a little ahead of them, standing just outside the Three Broomsticks. One was very tall and thin; squinting through his rain-washed glasses. Harry recognized the barman who worked in the other Hogsmeade pub, the Hog's Head. As Harry, Juliunna, Ron, and Hermione drew closer, the barman drew his cloak more tightly around his neck and walked away, leaving the shorter man to fumble with something in his arms. They were barely feet from him when Harry realized who the man was.

"Mundungus!"

The squat, bandy-legged man with long, straggly, ginger hair jumped and dropped an ancient suitcase, which burst open, releasing what looked like the entire contents of a junk shop window.

"Oh, 'ello, 'Arry," said Mundungus Fletcher, with a most unconvincing stab at airiness. "Well, don't let me keep ya."

And he began scrabbling on the ground to retrieve the contents of his suitcase with every appearance of a man eager to be gone. Juliunna took a sugar quill out of one of the box and popped the large stick in her mouth. "These are pretty good. And I can still write with ink?"

"Yep." Hermione said, nodding.

"Are you selling this stuff?" asked Harry, watching Mundungus grab an assortment of grubby-looking objects from the ground.

"Oh, well, gotta scrape a living," said Mundungus. "Gimme that!"

Ron had stooped down and picked up something silver.

"Hang on," Ron said slowly. "This looks familiar —"

"Thank you!" said Mundungus, snatching the goblet out of Ron's hand and stuffing it back into the case. "Well, I'll see you all-! **OUCH**!"

Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand.

"Harry!" squealed Hermione. Juliunna nearly choked on the sugar quill.

"You took that from Sinus's house," said Harry, who was almost nose to nose with Mundungus and was breathing in an unpleasant smell of old tobacco and spirits. "That had the Black family crest on it."

"I — no — what — ?" spluttered Mundungus, who was slowly turning purple.

"What did you do, go back the night he died and strip the place?" snarled Harry.

"I — no — "

"Give it to me!"

"Harry, you mustn't!" shrieked Hermione, as Mundungus started to turn blue.

There was a bang, and Harry felt his hands fly off Mundungus's throat. Gasping and spluttering, Mundungus seized his fallen case, then — **CRACK**— he Disapparated.

Harry swore at the top of his voice, spinning on the spot to see where Mundungus had gone.

**"COME BACK, YOU THIEVING — !" **

"There's no point, Harry." Tonks had appeared out of nowhere, her mousy hair wet with sleet.

"Mundungus will probably be in London by now. There's no point yelling."

"He's nicked Sirius's stuff! Nicked it!"

"Yes, but still," said Tonks, who seemed perfectly untroubled by this piece of information. "You should get out of the cold."

She watched them go through the door of the Three Broom-sticks. The moment he was inside, Harry burst out, "He was nicking Sirius's stuff!"

"I know, Harry, but please don't shout, people are staring," Whispered Hermione. "Go and sit down, I'll get you a drink."

Harry was still fuming when Hermione returned to their table a few minutes later holding four bottles of butterbeer.

"Can't the Order control Mundungus?" Harry demanded of the other three in a furious whisper. "Can't they at least stop him stealing everything that's not fixed down when he's at headquarters?"

"Shh!" said Juliunna desperately, looking around to make sure nobody was listening; there were a couple of warlocks sitting close by who were staring at Harry with great interest, and Zabini was lolling against a pillar not far away. "Harry, I'd be annoyed too, I know it's your things he's stealing —"

Harry gagged on his butterbeer; he had momentarily forgotten that he owned number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

"Yeah, it's my stuff!" he said. "No wonder he wasn't pleased to see me! Well, I'm going to tell Dumbledore what's going on, he's the only one who scares Mundungus."

"Good idea," whispered Hermione, clearly pleased that Harry was calming down. "Ron, what are you staring at?"

"Nothing," said Ron, hastily looking away from the bar, but Harry knew he was trying to catch the eye of the curvy and attractive bar-maid, Madam Rosmerta, for whom he had long nursed a soft spot.

"I expect 'nothing's' in the back getting more Firewhisky," said Hermione waspishly. Juliunna snickered.

Ron ignored this jibe, sipping his drink in what he evidently considered to be a dignified silence. Harry was thinking about Sirius, and how he had hated those silver goblets anyway. Hermione drummed her fingers on the table, her eyes flickering between Ron and the bar.

"So… I wonder if dipping my sugar quill in this thing would make it taste even better. Hermione," Juliunna said, tipping her quill into the glass. "Have you see that McLadden bloke lately? While he may be cute, he's a little off lately. Like he's been confunded." Juliunna said, spinning the quill inside her drink. Harry and Ron rolled their eyes, but Hermione answered, quickly pinking.

"Well, he's been put in the Hospital Wing yesterday for minor spell damage. He was confunded. "

"By a death eater?" Ron asked.

"No." Harry said quickly. "it was just a prank." He said. Hermione was glad when Harry entered Juliunna in a conversation of History.

The moment Harry drained the last drops in his bottle Juliunna said, "Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?"

The other three nodded; it had not been a fun trip and the weather was getting worse the longer they stayed. Once again they drew their cloaks tightly around them, rearranged their scarves, pulled on their gloves, then followed Katie Bell and a friend out of the pub and back up the High Street.

Harry's thoughts strayed to Ginny as they trudged up the road to Hogwarts through the frozen slush. They had not met up with her, undoubtedly, thought Harry, because she and Dean were cozily closeted in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, that haunt of happy couples. Scowling, he bowed his head against the swirling sleet and trudged on.

It was a little while before Harry became aware that the voices of Katie Bell and her friend, which were being carried back to him on the wind, had become shriller and louder. Harry squinted at their indistinct figures. The two girls were having an argument about something Katie was holding in her hand. "It's nothing to do with you, Leanne!" Harry heard Katie say.

They rounded a corner in the lane, sleet coming thick and fast, blurring Harry's glasses. Just as he raised a gloved hand to wipe them, Leanne made to grab hold of the package Katie was holding; Katie tugged it back and the package fell to the ground.

At once, Katie rose into the air gracefully, her arms outstretched, as though she was about to fly. Yet there was something wrong, something eerie.

Her hair was whipped around her by the fierce wind, but her eyes were closed and her face was quite empty of expression. Harry, Ron, Juliunna, Hermione, and Leanne had all halted in their tracks, watching.

Then, six feet above the ground, Katie let out a terrible scream.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

**Normal Pov**

It had been a few days after Katie Bells accident. The day after her attack, she had been taken off to St. Mungo's. Juliunna had repeatedly asked Draco if he knew anything about it, and he had replied with the same answer each time. "What?!" He would snap, as if he was insulted. Harry had put her up to it, and didn't believe that Draco was telling her the truth.

Harry had Herbology first thing the following morning. He had been unable to tell Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione about his lesson with Dumbledore over breakfast for fear of being over-heard, but he filled them in as they walked across the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses. The weekend's brutal wind had died out at last; the weird mist had returned and it took them a little longer than usual to find the correct greenhouse.

"Wow, scary thought, the boy You-Know-Who," Ron said quietly, as they took their places around one of the gnarled Snargaluff stumps that formed this terms project, and began pulling on their protective gloves. "But I still don't get why Dumbledore's showing you all this. I mean, it's really interesting and everything, but what's the point?"

"Dunno," said Harry, inserting a gum shield. "But he says its all important and it'll help me survive."

"I think it's fascinating," said Hermione earnestly. "It makes absolute sense to know as much about Voldemort as possible. How else will you find out his weaknesses?"

"I think its more then that." Juliunna said. "Your finding out how to take out his strengths." Juliunna said, rubbing her own forehead.

"So how was Slughorn's latest party?" Harry asked her thickly through the gum shield.

"Oh, it was quite fun, really," said Hermione, now putting on protective goggles. "I mean, he drones on about famous exploits a bit, and he absolutely fawns on McLaggen because he's so well connected, Juliunna because soon, she'll be as famous as you, once word gets out of the school, but he gave us some really nice food and he introduced us to Gwenog Jones."

"Gwenog Jones?" said Ron, his eyes widening under his own goggles. "_The _Gwenog Jones? Captain of the Holyhead Harpies?"

"That's right," said Hermione. "Personally, I thought she was a bit full of herself, but —"

"Quite enough chat over here!" said Professor Sprout briskly, bustling over and looking stern. "You're lagging behind, everybody else has started, and Neville's already got his first pod!"

They looked around; sure enough, there sat Neville with a bloody lip and several nasty scratches along the side of his face, but clutching an unpleasantly pulsating green object about the size of a grapefruit.

"Okay, Professor, we're starting now!" said Ron, adding quietly, when she had turned away again, "should've used Muffliato, Harry."

"No, we shouldn't!" said Hermione at once, looking, as she always did, intensely cross at the thought of the Half-Blood Prince and his spells. "Well, come on ... we'd better get going. ..."

She gave the other three an apprehensive look; they all took deep breaths and then dived at the gnarled stump between them.

It sprang to life at once; long, prickly, bramble like vines flew out of the top and whipped through the air. One tangled itself in Hermione's hair, and another trapped Juliunna six feet in the air, hanging upside down. With her wand and gritting her teeth, she cut off the branch holding her. She fell to the floor and bounced off her head and back to her feet.

Harry succeeded in trapping a couple of vines and knotting them together; a hole opened in the middle of all the tentacle like branches; Hermione plunged her arm bravely into this hole, which closed like a trap around her elbow; Harry and Ron tugged and wrenched at the vines, forcing the hole to open again, and Hermione snatched her arm free, clutching in her fingers a pod just like Neville's. At once, the prickly vines shot back inside, and the gnarled stump sat there looking like an innocently dead lump of wood.

"You know, I don't think I'll be having any of these in my garden when I've got my own place," said Ron, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead and wiping sweat from his face.

"Pass me a bowl," said Hermione, holding the pulsating pod at arm's length; Harry handed one over and she dropped the pod into it with a look of disgust on her face.

"Don't be squeamish, squeeze it out, they're best when they're fresh!" called Professor Sprout.

"Anyway," said Hermione, continuing their interrupted conversation as though a lump of wood had not just attacked them, "Slughorn's going to have a Christmas party, Harry, and there's no way you'll be able to wriggle out of this one because he actually asked me to check your free evenings, so he could be sure to have it on a night you can come."

Harry groaned. Meanwhile, Ron, who was attempting to burst the pod in the bowl by putting both hands on it, standing up, and squashing it as hard as he could, said angrily, "And this is another party just for Slughorn's favorites, is it?"

"Just for the Slug Club, yes," said Hermione.

The pod flew out from under Ron's fingers and hit the green house glass, rebounding onto the back of Professor Sprout's head and knocking off her old, patched hat. Juliunna went to retrieve the pod; when she got back, Hermione was saying, "Look, I didn't make up the name 'Slug Club' —"

"'Slug Club,'" Repeated Ron with a sneer worthy of Malfoy. "It's pathetic. Well, I hope you enjoy your party. Why don't you try hooking up with McLaggen, then Slughorn can make you King and Queen Slug —"

"We're allowed to bring guests," said Hermione, who for some reason had turned a bright, boiling scarlet, "and I was going to ask you to come, but if you think it's that stupid then I won't bother!"

Harry suddenly wished the pod had flown a little farther, so that he need not have been sitting here with the pair of them. Juliunna had about to puncture the pod with a knitting needle. "No Juliunna. Let me check the book first." Hermione said with a sigh.

Unnoticed by either, he seized the bowl that contained the pod and began to try and open it by the noisiest and most energetic means he could think of; unfortunately, he could still hear every word of their conversation.

"You were going to ask me?" asked Ron, in a completely different voice.

"Yes," said Hermione angrily. "But obviously if you'd rather I hooked up with McLaggen, then ..."

There was a pause while Harry continued to pound the resilient pod with a trowel.

"No, I wouldn't," said Ron, in a very quiet voice.

Harry missed the pod, hit the bowl, and shattered it.

'"Repairo,"' he said hastily, poking the pieces with his wand, and the bowl sprang back together again. The crash, however, appeared to have awoken Ron and Hermione to Harry's presence. Hermione looked flustered and immediately started fussing about for her copy of "Flesh-Eating Trees of the World" to find out the correct way to juice Snargaluff pods; Juliunna was wincing awkwardly, edging away from both Ron and Hermione. Ron, on the other hand, looked sheepish but also rather pleased with himself.

"Oops, sorry Juliunna." Said Hermione hurriedly. "It says we _are_ supposed to puncture them with something sharp. . . ."

Without further ado, Juliunna took the pod from Harry and punctured it.

"So, how's your Quidditch Team?" Harry asked Juliunna. "Oh, pretty good. Slytherin House is full of Wizarding born families, and all the applicants have been on brooms since they could walk-!"

Juliunna had just turned around, about to pick up another pod. Ron's face was inches from hers. Ron had his elbows placed on the table, his chin on his hands as he listened to her with a smug look.

"Anything you'd like to add Ron?" She said darkly.

"Nope." He chuckled. She turned back to Harry. "It took till afternoon. It wasn't as bad as you'd think. All the fliers are excellent. I only had seven spots up, and a whole house."

"Seven? What are you then?" Ron asked. Harry was curious too. There were seven positions on the Quidditch Field. Two Beaters, three Chasers, one keeper and one seeker.

"I'm the Captain. The Manager. Trust me, I know what I'm doing." Juliunna laughed.

She turned back to Harry. "Good luck at the Quidditch Game, Potter." She sneered in a very Malfoy –wayish voice.

"Even if it is against Slytherin." She smirked. Seconds later the three of them burst into loud laughter.

"Hey! Aren't we supposed to be working?" Hermione said, resurfacing from the plant with another pod clutched in her hand.

…

**November 21**

Tensions were high between Ron and Hermione. During an argument, Ginny had let it slip to Ron that when Hermione and Krum were together, they had snogged. Hermione was confused by Ron's rotten attitude.

To Harry's dismay, Ron's new aggression did not wear off over the next few days. Worse still, it coincided with an even deeper dip in his Keeping skills, which made him still more aggressive, so that during the final Quidditch practice before Saturdays match, he failed to save every single goal the Chasers aimed at him, but bellowed at everybody so much that he reduced Demelza Robins to tears.

"You shut up and leave her alone!" shouted Peakes, who was about two-thirds Ron's height, though admittedly carrying a heavy bat.

**"ENOUGH!"** bellowed Harry, who had seen Ginny glowering in Ron's direction and, remembering her reputation as an accomplished caster of the Bat-Bogey Hex, soared over to intervene be-fore things got out of hand. "Peakes, go and pack up the Bludgers. Demelza, pull yourself together, you played really well today, Ron . . ." he waited until the rest of the team were out of earshot before saying it, "you're my best mate, but carry on treating the rest of them like this and I'm going to kick you off the team."

He really thought for a moment that Ron might hit him, but then something much worse happened: Ron seemed to sag on his broom. all the fight went out of him and he said, "I resign. I'm pathetic."

"You're not pathetic and you're not resigning!" said Harry fiercely, seizing Ron by the front of his robes. "You can save any-thing when you're on form, it's a mental problem you've got!"

"You calling me mental?"

"Yeah, maybe I am!"

They glared at each other for a moment, then Ron shook his head wearily. "I know you haven't got any time to find another Keeper, so I'll play tomorrow, but if we lose, and we will, I'm taking myself off the team."

Nothing Harry said made any difference. He tried boosting Ron's confidence all through dinner, but Ron was too busy being grumpy and surly with Hermione to notice. Harry persisted in the common room that evening, but his assertion that the whole team would be devastated if Ron left was somewhat undermined by the fact that the rest of the team was sitting in a huddle in a distant corner, clearly muttering about Ron and casting him nasty looks. Finally Harry tried getting angry again in the hope of provoking Ron into a defiant, and hopefully goal-saving, attitude, but this strategy did not appear to work any better than encouragement; Ron went to bed as dejected and hopeless as ever.

Harry lay awake for a very long time in the darkness. He did not want to lose the upcoming match; not only was it his first as Captain, but he was determined to beat Draco Malfoy at Quidditch even if he could not yet prove his suspicions about him. And Juliunna was irking him lately. Everyday she came in from practice, always talking about how well things were going. All he could think about was how she was going to trump his team in the game.

Harry scowled deeply at the thought of how she had passed out specially made cupcakes to the Slytherin Team for being good Quidditch players yesterday, during Dinner. He so badly wanted to beat them.

Yet if Ron played as he had done in the last few practices, their chances of winning were very slim. . . .

If only there was something he could do to make Ron pull himself together . . . make him play at the top of his form . . . something that would ensure that Ron had a really good day. . . .

And the answer came to Harry in one, sudden, glorious stroke of inspiration.

…

Breakfast was the usual excitable affair next morning; the Slytherins hissed and booed loudly as every member of the Gryffindor team entered the Great Hall. Harry glanced at the ceiling and saw a clear, pale blue sky: a good omen.

The Gryffindor table, a solid mass of red and gold, cheered as Harry and Ron approached. Harry grinned and waved; Ron grimaced weakly and shook his head.

"Cheer up, Ron!" called Lavender. "I know you'll be brilliant!" Ron ignored her.

"Tea?" Harry asked him. "Coffee? Pumpkin juice?"

"Anything," said Ron glumly, taking a moody bite of toast.

A few minutes later Hermione, who had become so tired of Ron's recent unpleasant behavior that she had not come down to breakfast with them, paused on her way up the table.

"How are you both feeling?" she asked tentatively, her eyes on the back of Ron's head.

"Fine," said Harry, who was concentrating on handing Ron a glass of pumpkin juice. "There you go, Ron. Drink up."

Ron had just raised the glass to his lips when Hermione spoke sharply.

"Don't drink that, Ron!"

Both Harry and Ron looked up at her.

"Why not?" said Ron.

Hermione was now staring at Harry as though she could not believe her eyes.

"You just put something in that drink."

"Excuse me?" said Harry.

"You heard me. I saw you. You just tipped something into Ron's drink. You've got the bottle in your hand right now!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Harry, stowing the little bottle hastily in his pocket.

"Ron, I warn you, don't drink it!" Hermione said again, alarmed, but Ron picked up the glass, drained it in one gulp, and said, "Stop bossing me around, Hermione."

She looked scandalized. Bending low so that only Harry could hear her, she hissed, "You should be expelled for that. I'd never have believed it of you, Harry!"

"Look who's talking," he whispered back. "Confunded anyone lately?"

She stormed up the table away from them. Harry watched her go without regret. Hermione had never really understood what a serious business Quidditch was. He then looked around at Ron, who was smacking his lips.

"Nearly time." Said Harry blithely.

The frosty grass crunched underfoot as they strode down to the stadium.

"Pretty lucky the weathers this good, eh?" Harry asked Ron.

"Yeah," said Ron, who was pale and sick-looking.

Ginny and Demelza were already wearing their Quidditch robes and waiting in the changing room.

"Conditions look ideal," said Ginny, ignoring Ron. "And guess what? That Slytherin Chaser Vaisey, he took a Bludger in the head yesterday during their practice, and he's too sore to play! And even better than that — Malfoy's gone off sick too!"

"What?" said Harry, wheeling around to stare at her. "He's ill? What's wrong with him?"

"No idea, but it's great for us," said Ginny brightly. "They're playing Harper instead; he's in my year and he's an idiot."

Harry smiled back vaguely, but as he pulled on his scarlet robes his mind was far from Quidditch. Malfoy had once before claimed he could not play due to injury, but on that occasion he had made sure the whole match was rescheduled for a time that suited the Slytherins better. Why was he now happy to let a substitute go on? Was he really ill, or was he faking?

"Fishy, isn't it?" he said in an undertone to Ron. "Malfoy not playing?"

"Lucky, I call it," said Ron, looking slightly more animated. "And Vaisey off too, he's their best goal scorer, apparently, I didn't fancy — hey!" he said suddenly, freezing halfway through pulling on his Keepers gloves and staring at Harry.

"What?"

"I... you . . ." Ron had dropped his voice, he looked both scared and excited. "My drink ... my pumpkin juice ... you didn't...?"

Harry raised his eyebrows, but said nothing except, "We'll be starting in about five minutes, you'd better get your boots on."

They walked out onto the pitch to tumultuous roars and boos. One end of the stadium was solid red and gold; the other, a sea of green and silver. Many Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had taken sides too.

Amidst all the yelling and clapping Harry could distinctly hear the roar of Luna Lovegood's famous lion-topped hat.

Harry stepped up to Madam Hooch, the referee, who was standing ready to release the balls from the crate. Juliunna was standing in her green Quidditch Robes, looking around boringly. She looked like a proper Slytherin now. "Captains shake hands," Madame Hooch said, and Harry shook Juliunna's quickly. She didn't look at him, she was instead studying the broom she held in her hand. "Nimbus two thousand and one?" Harry smirked. "Using Malfoy's? I thought you took no part in this?"

"Professor Snape stepped in." She whispered. "Told me I had to play. He also threatened to letter my dad that I was making out with Malfoy and McLadden."

"You did?!" Harry said.

"Of course not. But who's the Dark Lord going believe?" Juliunna sighed. They let go of each other and turned to Madame Hooch.

"Mount your brooms." She said, and Juliunna threw a leg over her broom. "Wait," Harry said. "There's still seven people right behind you." He said.

"You'll see." She smirked.

"On the whistle . . . three . . . two . . . one . . ."

The whistle sounded, Harry and the others kicked off hard from the frozen ground, and they were away.

…

**Ten Minutes Later**

Juliunna landed on the ground, clutching the snitch in her hand. Her team swooped her upward as the Gryffindor Team hit the floor.

"Slytherin Wins!" Zacharias Smith yelled.

The sea of silver and green erupted into a screaming chorus of cheers as the Gryffindor Team erupted into shouts of swears.

"Why Ginny?!" Harry shouted at Ginny, who landed on the floor with a grimace. "What did I do?" She scowled. Smirking, the Slytherin team put Juliunna down and turned to face the Gryffindors.

"I thought you said that Harper was the Seeker? I was concentrating on him and the whole time I should have been looking at her!" Harry snapped.

"But that's what I heard!" Ginny said, as confused as Harry was angry.

"Harry," Juliunna smiled, enjoying herself at his anger. "It was really me. We Slytherins are known for our cunningness." She smirked. "And I knew your style. I spread the word this morning in the loo that since Draco couldn't play, Harper would be replacing him as Seeker. I knew what I was doing Harry, so don't be mad at her." Juliunna said. The teenagers on either side of her smirked and laughed.

"You planned this?" Harry asked. Ron abandoned his goal post and flew over to where Harry was standing. Harry, expecting to see Ron angry and cheated, was shocked to see him smirking.

"Well, I guess Felix can't change anything that's already in the course of action, I suppose." Ron said with a shrug. "But did you see me Harry? I saved everything! Everything! Not one mess up!"

The screaming of the Slytherins continued and the Slytherin Team lifted Juliunna up.

"See you later Scar face!" One of them shouted loudly.

"Bye Harry. Bye Ron. By everyone else!" Juliunna said as she was swept into the wave of Slytherins now swooping her away towards the castle.

…

Snow was swirling against the icy windows once more; Christmas was approaching fast. Hagrid had already single handedly delivered the usual twelve Christmas trees to the Great Hall; garlands of holly and tinsel had been twisted around the banisters of the stairs; everlasting candles glowed from inside the helmets of suits of armor and great bunches of mistletoe had been hung at intervals along the corridors. Large groups of girls tended to converge underneath the mistletoe bunches every time Harry went past, which caused blockages in the corridors; fortunately, however, Harry's frequent nighttime wanderings had given him an unusually good knowledge of the castle's secret passageways, so that he was often, without too much difficulty, to navigate mistletoe-free routes between classes.

Ron, who might once have found the necessity of these detours excuse for jealousy rather than hilarity, simply roared with laughter about it all. Although Harry much preferred this new laughing, joking Ron to the moody, aggressive model he had been enduring for the last few weeks, the improved Ron came at a heavy price. Firstly, Harry had to put up with the frequent presence of Lavender Brown, who seemed to regard any moment that she was not kissing Ron as a moment wasted; and secondly, both Julunna and Harry found themselfs once more the best friend of two people who seemed unlikely ever to speak to each other again.

Ron was taking a defensive and resentful tone.

"She can't complain," he told Harry and Juliunna . "She snogged Krum. So she's found out someone wants to snog me too. Well, it's a free country. I haven't done anything wrong."

Harry did not answer, but pretended to be absorbed in the book they were supposed to have read before Charms next morning (Quintessence: A Quest). Determined as he was to remain friends with both Ron and Hermione, he was spending a lot of time with his mouth shut tight.

"I never promised Hermione anything. " Ron mumbled. "I mean, all right, I was going to go to Slughorn's Christmas party with her, but she never said... just as friends... I'm a free agent..."

Harry turned a page of Quintessence, aware that Ron was watching him. Ron's voice trailed away in mutters, barely audible over the loud crackling of the fire, though Harry thought he caught the words "Krum" and "Can't complain" again.

"What do you think Juliunna?" Ron asked her, and Harry knew there was a carefully laced dark smile under his kind one, as if he was wishing for the chance to turn on her.

"I think your being an idiot about it." She told him one day. "That was in fourth year. You were never with her, and your ego is so super maxed that you can't see that she's upset because she doesn't know what she did to offend you. If you like her, just pluck up the courage and ask her already and stop going out with that bimbo you call a girl." Juliunna said, her eyes flickering over Lavender Brown. Ron's eyes had narrowed into near slits.

The next time Harry saw Juliunna, she was in the library with Hermione, both avoiding Ron because of his constant teasing and insults.

Hermione's schedule was so full that Harry could only talk to her properly in the evenings, when Ron was, in any case, so tightly wrapped around Lavender that he did not notice what Harry was doing. Hermione refused to sit in the common room while Ron was there, So Harry generally joined her and Juliunna in the library, which meant that their conversations were held in whispers.

"He's at perfect liberty to kiss whomever he likes," said Hermione, while the librarian , Madam Pince, prowled the shelves behind them. "I really couldn't care less."

"He and that bimbo called me names till everyone in the room was staring!" Juliunna snarled to Harry. She grabbed a nearby text book and slammed it open. "He told me I was a good for nothing traitor for siding with Hermione. And he and Lavender keep going around telling people I'm insane." Juliunna scowled. Harry frowned.

"Why would he do that? I mean, there's no reason for you to be insane. You and Hermione are the most intelligent students here." Harry said. Juliunna and Hermione shared gloomy looks.

"What?" Harry asked when they didn't say anything.

"I left my diary on the library table two days ago. I went to see Hermione because she had an extra ink bottle. And when I came back…" Juliunna drifted off.

"He had it?" Harry asked softly.

"No. Lavenders friend, Padma Patil did. She and that bimbo were reading it, I must have been gone for a minute. And its filled with a lot of private stuff. My hopes and dreams. Depressed feelings. Nothing they'd understand. And some poetry I wrote… Thing is, I only write in that diary when I'm angry. And so its filled with dark stuff. And when I threatened to jinx them, they threw it down and ran from the room."

She raised her quill and dotted an 'I' so ferociously that she punctured a hole in her parchment. "When Ron heard, he came straight to me and said, that if I said that I was sorry and that Hermione was the one who was wrong, he wouldn't spread the gossip to a lot of people. Obviously I said no. I'm surprised you didn't hear."

Harry said nothing. He thought his voice might soon vanish from the lack of use. He bent a little lower over Advanced Potion-Making and continued to make notes on Everlasting Elixirs, occasionally pausing to decipher the prince's useful additions to Libatius B orage's text.

"He's such a prat. And incidentally," said Hermione, after a few moments, "you need to be careful."

"For the last time," said Harry, speaking in a slightly hoarse tone after three-quarters of an hour of silence, "I am not giving back this book . I've learned more from the Half blood prince than Snape or Slughorn have taught me in-"

"I'm not talking about your stupid so-called prince," said Hermione, giving his book a nasty look as though it had been rude to her. "I'm talking about earlier. I went into the girl's bathroom just before I came in here and there were about a dozen girls in there, including that Ramilda Vane, trying to decide how to slip you a love potion. They're all hoping they're going to get you to take them to Slughorn's party, and they all seem to have bought Fred and George's love potions, which I'm afraid to say probably work -"

"Why didn't you confiscate them then?" demanded Harry, it seemed extraordinary that Hermione's mania for upholding the rules could have abandoned her at this crucial juncture. Juliunna snickered softly.

"They didn't have the potions with them in the bathroom," said Hermione scornfully, "They were just discussing tactics. As I doubt the Half-blood prince" she gave the book another scornful look "could dream up an antidote for a dozen different love potions at once, I'd just invite someone to go with you, that'll stop all the others thinking they've still got a chance. It's tomorrow night, they're getting desperate."

"There isn't anyone I want to invite," mumbled Harry, who was still not trying to think about Ginny any more than he could help, despite the fact the fact that she kept cropping up in his dreams in ways that made him devoutly thankful that Ron could not perform Legilimency.

"Well, just be careful what you drink, because Ramilda Vane looked like she meant business." said Juliunna grimly.

She hitched up the long roll of parchment on which she was writing her Arithmacy essay and continued to scratch away with her quill. Harry watched her with his mind a long way away.

"Hang on a moment," he said slowly. "I thought Filch had banned anything bought at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?"

"And when has anyone ever paid attention to what Filch has banned?" asked Hermione, still concentrating on her essay. Juliunna nodded, looking between her book and her piece of parchment.

"But I thought all the owls were being searched. So how come these girls are able to bring love potions into the school?"

"Fred and George send them disguised as perfumes and cough potions," said Hermione. "It's part of their Owl order service."

"You know a lot about it."

Hermione gave him the kind of nasty look she had just given his copy of Advanced Potion-Making.

"It was all on the back of the bottles they showed Ginny and me in the summer," she said coldly, "I don't go around putting potions in people's drinks... or pretending too either, which is just as bad..."

"Yeah, well, never mind that," said Harry quickly. "The point is, Filch is being fooled isn't he? These girls are getting stuff into the school disguised as something else! So why couldn't Malfoy have brought the necklace into the school-?"

"Oh, Harry... not that again..."

"Come on, why not?" demanded Harry.

"Look , " Juliunna sighed without looking up at him. "Secrecy Sensors detect jinxes, curses, and concealment charms, don't they? They're used to find dark magic and dark objects. They'd have picked up a powerful curse , like the one in the necklace, within seconds. But something that's just been put in the wrong bottle wouldn't register-! Anyway Love potions aren't dark or dangerous."

"Easy for you to say," muttered Harry, thinking of Ramilda Vane.

"So it would be down to Filch to realize it wasn't a cough potion, and he's not a very good wizard, I doubt he can tell one potion from -"

Hermione stopped dead; Harry had heard it too. Juliunna looked too. Somebody had moved close behind them among the dark bookshelves. They waited, and a moment later the vulture like countenance of Madam Pince appeared around the corner, her sunken cheeks, her skin like parchment, and her long hooked nose illuminated unflatteringly by the lamp she was carrying.

"The library is now closed," she said, "Mind you return anything you have borrowed to the correct-! What have you been doing to that book, you depraved boy?"

"It isn't the library's, it's mine!" said Harry hastily, snatching his copy of Advanced Potion-Making off the table as she lunged at it with a claw like hand.

" Spoiled!" she hissed . "Desecrated, befouled !"

"It's just a book that's been written on!" said Harry, tugging it out of her grip.

She looked as though she might have a seizure; Hermione and Juliunna, who had hastily packed their things, grabbed Harry by the arm and frog marched him away.

"She'll ban you from the library if you're not careful. Why did you have to bring that stupid book?" Hermione snapped.

"It's not my fault she's barking mad, Hermione. Or d'you think she overheard you being rude about Filch? I've always thought there might be something between them..."

"Oh, ha ha.."

Enjoying the fact that they could speak normally again, they made their way along the deserted lamp-lit corridors back to the Gryffindor common room, arguing whether or not Filch and Madam Pince were secretly in love with each other.

"Mind if I come in for a few minutes?" Juliunna asked. "Draco keeps giving me dirty looks because…" Juliunna stopped talking. Harry and Hermione turned toward her and raised an eyebrow.

"Go on." Hermione said.

"Ron was… Ron bragged to everyone about how I had kissed him. Draco didn't like it." Juliunna sighed. "But I thought you already told him-!"

"The way Ron was talking about it, you would have thought we snogged right before he walked inside the room. And Ron won't explain to Draco the truth." Juliunna said. "So yeah, Draco's angry."

"Come on in." Hermione said.

"Baubles" said Harry to the Fat Lady, this being the new password.

"Same to you," said the fat lady with a roguish grin, and she swung forward to admit them.

"Hi, Harry!" said Ramilda Vane, the moment he had climbed through the portrait hole. "Fancy a gillywater?"

Hermione gave him a "what-did-I-tell-you?" look over her shoulder.

"No thanks," said Harry quickly. "I don't like it much."

"Well, take these anyway," said Ramilda, thrusting a box into his hands. "Chocolate Cauldrons, they've got fire whiskey in them. My Gran sent them to me, but I don't like them."

"Oh- right - thanks a lot." said Harry, who could not think what else to say. "Here Harry, I'll give these to Witherwings." Juliunna said, taking the chocolates off of Ramilda's hands. Ramilda glared at her greatly. Juliunna walked over to the fireplace and without further ado, threw them in the fire.

"Ha!" Hermione laughed at the look on Ramilda face.

" Er- I ' m just going over here with ..." Harry said. He hurried off behind Hermione, his voice tailing away feebly.

"Told you," said Hermione succinctly, "Sooner you ask someone, sooner they'll all leave you alone and you can-!" Hermione looked at Ron and Lavender on the arm chair, wrapped in themselves. "Let's go upstairs." Hermione said to Juliunna. Immediately, they both ran up the stairs without saying goodbye to Harry.

…

Harry hopes were not high, and they sank still lower after enduring a Transfiguration lesson with them both next day. They had just embarked upon the immensely difficult topic of human transfiguration; working in front of mirrors they were supposed to be changing the color of their own eyebrows. Hermione laughed unkindly at Ron's disastrous first attempt, during which he somehow managed to give himself a spectacular handlebar mustache; Ron retaliated by doing a cruel but accurate impression of Hermione jumping up and down in her seat every time Professor McGonagall asked a question, which Lavender and Parvati found deeply amusing and which reduced Hermione to the verge of tears again. She raced out of the classroom on the bell, leaving half her things behind; Harry, deciding that her need was greater than Ron's just now, scooped up her remaining possessions and followed her. Juliunna looked as if she wanted to smack Ron across the face, but he grabbed her shoulder and steered her out of the room.

He finally tracked her down as she emerged from a girl's bathroom on the floor below. She was accompanied by Luna Lovegood, who was patting her vaguely on the back.

"Oh, hello, Harry, " said Luna . " Did you know one of your eyebrows is bright yellow?"

"Hi, Luna. Hermione, you left your stuff..."

He held out her books.

"Oh, yes," said Hermione in a choked voice, taking her things and turning away quickly to hide the fact she was wiping her eyes with her pencil case. "Thank you, Harry. Well, I'd better get going... Juliunna?" Hermione asked her. Without talking, Hermione and Juliunna strutted away, Harry staring at them sadly as they rounded the corner. He turned to Luna, who was smiling at him. It was as if a light bulb had went off in his head.

"Luna, will you go to the Christmas Party with me?" He smiled, and Luna's eyes went wide with excitement. "As friends you know."  
"Yes!"


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

**Normal Pov**

When he arrived in the entrance hall at eight o'clock that night, he found an unusually large number of girls lurking there, all of whom seemed to be staring at him resentfully as he approached Luna. She was wearing a set of spangled silver robes that were attracting a certain amount of giggles from the onlookers, but otherwise she looked quite nice. Harry was glad, in any case, that she had left off her radish earrings, her butterbeer cork necklace, and her Spectrespecs.

"Hi," he said. "Shall we get going then?"

"Oh yes," she said happily. "Where is the party?"

"Slughorn's office," said Harry, leading her up the marble staircase away from all the staring and muttering. "Did you hear, there's supposed to be a vampire coming?"

"Rufus Scrimgeour?" asked Luna.

"I - what?" said Harry, disconcerted. "You mean the Minister of Magic?"

"Yes, he's a vampire," said Luna matter-of-factly. "Father wrote a very long article about it when Scrimgeour first took over from Cornelius Fudge, but he was forced not to publish by somebody from the Ministry. Obviously, they didn't want the truth to get out!"

Harry, who thought it most unlikely that Rufus Scrimgeour was a vampire, but who was used to Luna repeating her father's bizarre views as though they were fact, did not reply; they were already approaching Slughorn's office and the sounds of laughter, music, and loud conversation were growing louder with every step they took.

Whether it had been built that way, or because he had used magical trickery to make it so, Slughorn's office was much larger than the usual teacher's study. The ceiling and walls had been draped with emerald, crimson , and gold hangings, so that it looked as though they were all inside a vast tent. The room was crowded and stuffy and bathed in the red light cast by an ornate golden lamp dangling from the center of the ceiling in which real fairies were fluttering, each a brilliant speck of light. Loud singing accompanied by what sounded like mandolins issued from a distant corner; a haze of pipe smoke hung over several elderly warlocks deep in conversation, and a number of house-elves were negotiating their way squeakily through the forest of knees, obscured by the heavy silver platters of food they were bearing, so that they looked like little roving tables.

"Harry, m'boy!" boomed Slughorn, almost as soon as Harry and Luna had squeezed in through the door. "Come in, come in, so many people I'd like you to meet!"

Slughorn was wearing a tasseled velvet hat to match his smoking jacket. Gripping Harry's arm so tightly he might have been hoping to Disapparate with him, Slughorn led him purposefully into the party; Harry seized Luna's hand and dragged her along with him.

"Harry, I'd like you to meet Eldred Worple, an old student of mine, author of ' Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires' - and, of course, his friend Sanguini."

Worple, who was a small, stout, bespectacled man, grabbed Harry's hand and shook it enthusiastically; the vampire Sanguini, who was tall and emaciated with dark shadows under his eyes, merely nodded. He looked rather bored. A gaggle of girls was standing close to him, looking curious and excited.

"Harry Potter, I am simply delighted!" said Worple, peering shortsightedly up into Harry's face. "I was saying to Professor Slughorn only the other day, 'Where is the biography of Harry Potter for which we have all been waiting?'"

"Er," said Harry, "were you?"

"Just as modest as Horace described!" said Worple. "But seriously" — his manner changed; it became suddenly businesslike — "I would be delighted to write it myself— people are craving to know more about you, dear boy, craving! If you were prepared to grant me a few interviews, say in four- or five-hour sessions, why, we could have the book finished within months. And all with very little effort on your part, I assure you — ask Sanguini here if it isn't quite — Sanguini, stay here!" added Worple, suddenly stern, for the vampire had been edging toward the nearby group of girls, a rather hungry look in his eye. "Here, have a pasty," said Worple, seizing one from a passing elf and stuffing it into Sanguini's hand before turning his attention back to Harry. "My dear boy, the gold you could make, you have no idea —"

"I'm definitely not interested," said Harry firmly, "and I've just seen a friend of mine, sorry." He pulled Luna after him into the crowd; he had indeed just seen a long mane of brown hair disappear between what looked like two members of the Weird Sisters.

"Hermione! Hermione !"

"Harry! There you are, thank goodness! Hi, Luna !"

"What's happened to you?" asked Harry, for Hermione looked distinctly disheveled, rather as though she had just fought her way out of a thicket of Devil's Snare.

"Oh, I've just escaped — I mean, I've just left Cormac," she said. "Under the mistletoe," she added in explanation, as Harry continued to look questioningly at her.

"Serves you right for coming with him," he told her severely. "I thought he'd annoy Ron most," said Hermione dispassionately. "I debated for a while about Zacharias Smith, but I thought, on the whole —"

"You considered Smith?" said Harry, revoked.

"Yes, I did, and I'm starting to wish I'd chosen him, McLaggen makes Grawp look a gentleman. Let's go this way, we'll be able to see him coming, he's so tall. . . ." The three of them made their way over to the other side of the room, scooping up goblets of mead on the way, realizing too late that Professor Trelawney was standing there alone.

"Hello," said Luna politely to Professor Trelawney.

"Where's Juliunna?" Harry asked her.

"I don't know, she didn't show up. We were supposed to meet at the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room. She never surfaced." Hermione said with a sigh.

"I think its Malfoy again." She said. Harry nodded once and turned to face Professor Trelawney, making a mental note to check with Juliunna in the morning if her relationship with Malfoy is actually good for her.

"Good evening, my dear," said Professor Trelawney, focusing upon Luna with some difficulty. Harry could smell cooking sherry again. "I haven't seen you in my classes lately. .."

"No, I've got Firenze this year," said Luna.

"Oh, of course," said Professor Trelawney with an angry, drunken titter. "Or Dobbin, as I prefer to think of him. You would have thought, would you not, that now I am returned to the school Professor Dumbledore might have got rid of the horse? But no ... we share classes. . . . It's an insult, frankly, an insult. Do you know. . ." Professor Trelawney seemed too tipsy to have recognized Harry.

Under cover of her furious criticisms of Firenze, Harry drew closer to Hermione and said, "Let's get something straight. Are you planning to tell Ron that you interfered at Keeper tryouts?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Do you really think I'd stoop that low?"

"Harry looked at her shrewdly. "Hermione, if you can ask McLaggen —"

"There's a difference," said Hermione with dignity. "I've got no plans to tell Ron anything about what might, or might not, have happened at Keeper tryouts."

"Good," said Harry fervently. "Because he'll just fall apart again, and we'll lose the next match —"

"Quidditch!" said Hermione angrily. "Is that all boys care about? Cormac hasn't asked me one single question about myself, no, I've just been treated to 'A Hundred Great Saves Made by Cormac McLaggen' nonstop ever since — oh no, here he comes!" She moved so fast it was as though she had Disapparated; one moment she was there, the next, she had squeezed between two guffawing witches and vanished.

"Seen Hermione?" asked McLaggen, forcing his way through the throng a minute later.

"No, sorry," said Harry, and he turned quickly to join in Luna's conversation, forgetting for a split second to whom she was talking.

"Harry Potter!" said Professor Trelawney in deep, vibrant tones, noticing him for the first time.

"Oh, hello," said Harry unenthusiastically.

"My dear boy!" she said in a very carrying whisper. "The rumors! The stories! 'The Chosen One'! Of course, I have known for a very long time. . . . The omens were never good, Harry. . . But why have you not returned to Divination? For you, of all people, the subject is of the utmost importance!"

"Ah, Sybil, we all think our subject's most important!" said a loud voice, and Slughorn appeared at Professor Trelawney s other side, his face very red, his velvet hat a little askew, a glass of mead in one hand and an enormous mince pie in the other. "But I don't think I've ever known such a natural at Potions!" said Slughorn, re-garding Harry with a fond, if bloodshot, eye. "Instinctive, you know — like his mother! I've only ever taught a few with this kind of ability, I can tell you that, Sybi — why even Severus —" And to Harry's horror, Slughorn threw out an arm and seemed to scoop Snape out of thin air toward them. "Stop skulking and come and join us, Severus!" hiccuped Slughorn happily. "I was just talking about Harry's exceptional potion making! Some credit must go to you, of course, you taught him for five years!"

Trapped, with Slughorns arm around his shoulders, Snape looked down his hooked nose at Harry, his black eyes narrowed. "Funny, I never had the impression that I managed to teach Potter anything at all."

"Well, then, it's natural ability!" shouted Slughorn. "You should have seen what he gave me, first lesson, Draught of Living Death — never had a student produce finer on a first attempt, I don't think even you, Severus —"

"Really?" said Snape quietly, his eyes still boring into Harry, who felt a certain disquiet. The last thing he wanted was for Snape to start investigating the source of his newfound brilliance at Potions.

"Remind me what other subjects you're taking, Harry?" asked Slughorn .

"Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration , Herbology..."

"All the subjects required, in short, for an Auror." said Snape with the faintest sneer.

"Yeah, well, that's what I'd like to do," said Harry defiantly.

"And a great one you'll make too!" boomed Slughorn.

"I don't think you should be an Auror, Harry," said Luna unexpectedly. Everybody looked at her. "The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They're planning to bring down the Ministry of Magic from within using a combination of Dark Magic and gum disease."

Harry inhaled half his mead up his nose as he started to laugh. Really, it had been worth bringing Luna just for this. Emerging, from his goblet, coughing, sopping wet but still grinning, he saw something calculated to raise his spirits even higher: Draco Malfoy and, to his surprise, Juliunna being dragged by the ear toward them by Argus Filch.

"Professor Slughorn," wheezed Filch, his jowls aquiver and the maniacal light of mischief-detection in his bulging eyes, "I discovered this girl and boy lurking in an upstairs corridor. They claim to have been invited to your party and to have been delayed in setting out. Did you issue them with an invitation?" Filch said. Juliunna pulled out of Filch's tight grip and moved over to the side.

"Why of course, this is Miss Riddle, one of my crown jewels, and I suppose that this is your date, Miss?" Slughorn said, looking at Juliunna.

"Yes." She said. Draco pushed Filch away and grabbed Juliunna's arm.

"Oh. Sorry Professor. Neccasarry precautions to take of course." Filch said.

"Oh we know." Juliunna smirked. "Anyway, sorry Professor Slughorn. Draco fell asleep when I came down to get him." Juliunna explained, shaking Slughorns hand. "Oh no worries. No worries my dear, we all have those days." He laughed.

Filch's expression of outraged disappointment was perfectly predictable; But why, Harry wondered, watching him, did Malfoy look almost equally unhappy? And why was Snape looking at Malfoy as though both angry and . . . was it possible? ... a little afraid? But almost before Harry had registered what he had seen, Filch had turned and shuffled away, muttering under his breath; Malfoy had composed his face into a smile and was thanking Slughorn for his generosity, and Snape's face was smoothly inscrutable again.

"It's nothing, nothing," said Slughorn, waving away Malfoy's thanks. "I did know your grandfather, after all..."

"He always spoke very highly of you, sir," said Malfoy quickly. "Said you were the best potion-maker he'd ever known. ..."

Harry stared at Malfoy. It was not the sucking-up that intrigued him; he had watched Malfoy do that to Snape for a long time. It was the fact that Malfoy did, after all, look a little ill. This was the first time he had seen Malfoy close up for ages; he now saw that Malfoy had dark shadows under his eyes and a distinctly grayish tinge to his skin. Juliunna gave Draco a soft look, and then stepped forward to greet Hermione. They exchanged hello's and promises to never be late again.

"I'd like a word with you, Draco," said Snape suddenly. Draco had just took a step forward, and turned to Snape, narrowing his eyes.

"Now , Severus," said Slughorn, hiccuping again, "it's Christmas, and he was rightfully invited. Don't be too hard —"

"I am his Head of House, and I shall decide how hard, or other-wise, to be," said Snape curtly. "Follow me, Draco."

They left, Snape leading the way, Malfoy looking resentful. "I'll be back." He called out to Juliunna, who nodded. Harry stood there for a moment, irresolute, then said, "I'll be back in a bit, Luna… Er — bathroom."

"Your dress is beautiful. Why were you late?" Hermione asked Juliunna when Harry left the room.

"Thank you. If you must know, Draco was doing something. He made me sit in the other hallway while he went to go check on some toy or something." Juliunna said, waving her thinly laced gloved hands. She was wearing a pure, blood red dress. On her head lay a crown that Draco's mother had given her. Hermione and Luna started to compliment her on her lovely new heels, when Draco walked back in the room. His face was pale and set. He strode right up to Juliunna, and grabbed her wrist.

"We're leaving." He said, his lips barely moving.

"But we just got here." Juliunna moaned.

"I said we're going." Draco said. His breathing was harsh, and he looked sickly. Juliunna frowned. "Please." He added, more softly and desperately.

"Goodbye." She said Hermione, who frowned.

"But-!"

Draco dragged Juliunna out of the party. Hermione shot a foul look at Draco's head as he and Juliunna left the room.

"I swear, one of these days." Hermione muttered deeply.

…

"So Snape was offering to help him? He was definitely offering to help him?"

"If you ask. that once more," said Harry, "I'm going to stick this sprout —"

"I'm only checking!" said Ron. They were standing alone at the Burrow's kitchen sink, peeling a mountain of sprouts for Mrs. Weasley. Snow was drifting past the window in front of them.

"Yes, Snape was offering to help him!" said Harry. This was the first time he and Ron had been face to face since this morning, without the worry of people overhearing. "He said he'd promised Malfoy's mother to protect him, that he'd made an Un-breakable Oath or something —"

"An Unbreakable Vow?" said Ron, looking stunned. "Nah, he can't have. . . . Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," said Harry. "Why, what does it mean?"

"Well, you can't break an Unbreakable Vow. . . ."

"I'd worked that much out for myself, funnily enough. What happens if you break it, then?"

"You die," said Ron simply. "Fred and George tried to get me to make one when I was about five. I nearly did too, I was holding hands with Fred and everything when Dad found us. He went mental," said Ron, with a reminiscent gleam in his eyes. "Only time I've ever seen Dad as angry as Mum, Fred reckons his left but-tock has never been the same since."

"Yeah, well, passing over Fred's left buttock —"

"I beg your pardon?" said Fred's voice as the twins entered the kitchen.

"Aaah, George, look at this. They're using knives and everything. Bless them."

"I'll be seventeen in two and a bit months' time," said Ron grumpily, "and then I'll be able to do it by magic!"

"But meanwhile," said George, sitting down at the kitchen table and putting his feet up on it, "we can enjoy watching you demonstrate the correct use of a — whoops-a-daisy!"

"You made me do that!" said Ron angrily, sucking his cut thumb. "You wait, when I'm seventeen —"

"I'm sure you'll dazzle us all with hitherto unsuspected magical skills," yawned Fred.

"And speaking of hitherto unsuspected skills, Ronald," said George, "what is this we hear from Ginny about you and a young lady called — unless our information is faulty — Lavender Brown?"

Ron turned a little pink, but did not look displeased as he turned back to the sprouts. "Mind your own business."

"What a snappy retort," said Fred. "I really don't know how you think of them. No, what we wanted to know was... how did it happen?"

"What d'you mean?"

"Did she have an accident or something?"

"What?"

"Well, how did she sustain such extensive brain damage? Careful, now!"

Mrs. Weasley entered the room just in time to see Ron throw the sprout knife at Fred, who had turned it into a paper airplane with one lazy flick of his wand,

"Ron!" she said furiously. "Don't you ever let me see you throwing knives again!"

"I wont," said Ron, "let you see," he added under his breath, as he turned back to the sprout mountain.

"Fred, George, I'm sorry, dears, but Remus is arriving tonight, so Bill will have to squeeze in with you two." ;

"No problem," said George.

"Then, as Charlie isn't coming home, that just leaves Harry and Ron in the attic, and if Fleur shares with Ginny and Juliunna —"

"— that'll make Ginny's Christmas —" muttered Fred. "— everyone should be comfortable. Well, they'll have a bed, anyway," said Mrs. Weasley, sounding slightly harassed.

"Percy definitely not showing his ugly face, then?" asked Fred. Mrs. Weasley turned away before she answered. "No, he's busy, I expect, at the Ministry."

"Or he's the world's biggest prat," said Fred, as Mrs. Weasley left the kitchen. "One of the two. "Well, let's get going, then, George."

"What are you two up to?" asked Ron. "Cant you help us with these sprouts? You could just use your wand and then we'll be free too!"

"No, I don't think we can do that," said Fred seriously. "It's very character-building stuff, learning to peel sprouts without magic, makes you appreciate how difficult it is for Muggles and Squibs —" "— and if you want people to help you, Ron," added George, throwing the paper airplane at him, "I wouldn't chuck knives at them. Just a little hint. We're off to the village, there's a very pretty girl working in the paper shop who thinks my card tricks are something marvelous . . , almost like real magic. ..."

"Gits," said Ron darkly, watching Fred and George setting off across the snowy yard. "Would've only taken them ten seconds and then we could've gone too."

"I couldn't," said Harry. "I promised Dumbledore I wouldn't wander off while I'm staying here."

"Oh yeah," said Ron. He peeled a few more sprouts and then said, "Are you going to tell Dumbledore what you heard Snape and Malfoy saying to each other?"

"Yep," said Harry. "I'm going to tell anyone who can put a stop to it, and Dumbledore's top of the list. I might have another word with your dad too."

"Pity you didn't hear what Malfoy's actually doing, though."

"I couldn't have done, could I? That was the whole point, he was refusing to tell Snape."

There was silence for a moment or two, then Ron said, "Course, you know what they'll all say? Dad and Dumbledore and all of them? They'll say Snape isn't really trying to help Malfoy, he was just trying to find out what Malfoy's up to."

"They didn't hear him," said Harry flatly. "No one's that good an actor, not even Snape."

"Yeah . . . I'm just saying, though." said Ron.

Harry turned to face him, frowning. "You think I'm right, though?" ,

"Yeah, I do!" said Ron hastily. "Seriously, I do! But they're all convinced Snape's in the Order, aren't they?"

Harry said nothing. It had already occurred to him that this would be the most likely objection to his new evidence; he could hear Hermione now: Obviously, Harry, he was pretending to offer help so he could trick Malfoy into telling him what he's doing. . . .

This was pure imagination, however, as he had had no opportunity to tell Hermione what he had overheard. She had disappeared from Slughorn's party before he returned to it, or so he had been informed by an irate McLaggen, and she had already gone to bed by the time he returned to the common room. As he and Ron had left for the Burrow early the next day, he had barely had time to wish her a happy Christmas and to tell her that he had some very important news when they got back from the holidays. He was not entirely sure that she had heard him, though; Ron and Lavender had been saying a thoroughly nonverbal good-bye just behind him at the time.

Still, even Hermione would not be able to deny one thing: Malfoy was definitely up to something, and Snape knew it, so Harry felt fully justified in saying "I told you so," which he had done several times to Ron already.

Harry did not get the chance to speak to Mr. Weasley, who was working very long hours at the Ministry, until Christmas Eve night. The Weasleys and their guests were sitting in the living room, which Ginny had decorated so lavishly that it was rather like sitting in a paper-chain explosion. Fred, George, Harry, and Ron were the only ones who knew that the angel on top of the tree was actually a garden gnome that had bitten Fred on the ankle as he pulled up carrots for Christmas dinner. Stupefied, painted gold, stuffed into a miniature tutu and with small wings glued to its back, it glowered down at them all, the ugliest angel Harry had ever seen, with a large bald head like a potato and rather hairy feet.

They were all supposed to be listening to a Christmas broadcast by Mrs. Weasleys favorite singer, Celestina Warbeck, whose voice was warbling out of the large wooden wireless set. Fleur, who seemed to find Celestina very dull, was talking so loudly in the corner that a scowling Mrs. Weasley kept pointing her wand at the volume control, so that Celestina grew louder and louder. Under cover of a particularly jazzy number called "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love," Fred and George started a game of Exploding Snap with Ginny. Ron kept shooting Bill and Fleur covert looks, as though hoping to pick up tips. Juliunna was on her back in front of the living room fire place, her hair sprawled over as she was sleeping.

Meanwhile, Remus Lupin, who was thinner and more ragged-looking than ever, was sitting beside her, deeply enthralled by the fire, staring into its depths as though he could not hear Celestina's voice.

_**Oh, come and stir my cauldron, **_

_**And if you do it right, **_

_**I'll boil you up some hot strong love **_

_**To keep you warm tonight. **_

"We danced to this when we were eighteen!" said Mrs. Weasley, wiping her eyes on her knitting. "Do you remember, Arthur?"

"Mphf?" said Mr. Weasley, whose head had been nodding over the Satsuma he was peeling. "Oh yes ... marvelous tune . . ."

With an effort, he sat up a little straighter and looked around at Harry, who was sitting next to him.

"Sorry about this," he said, jerking his head toward the wireless as Celestina broke into the chorus. "Be over soon."

"No problem," said Harry, grinning. "Has it been busy at the Ministry?"

"Very," said Mr. Weasley. "I wouldn't mind if we were getting anywhere, but of the three arrests we've made in the last couple of months, I doubt that one of them is a genuine Death Eater — only don't repeat that, Harry," he added quickly, looking much more awake all of a sudden.

"They're not still holding Stan Shunpike, are they?" asked Harry.

"I'm afraid so," said Mr. Weasley. "I know Dumbledore's tried appealing directly to Scrimgeour about Stan. ... I mean, anybody who has actually interviewed him agrees that he's about as much a Death Eater as my dinner . . . but the top levels want to look as though they're making some progress, and 'three arrests' sounds better than 'three mistaken arrests and releases'. . . but again, this is all top secret. . . ."

"I won't say anything," said Harry. He hesitated for a moment, wondering how best to embark on what he wanted to say; as he marshaled his thoughts, Celestina Warbeck began a ballad called "You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me."

"Mr. Weasley, you know what I told you at the station when we were setting off for school?"

"I checked, Harry," said Mr. Weasley at once. "I went and searched the Malfoys' house. There was nothing, either broken or whole, that shouldn't have been there."

"Yeah, I know, I saw in the Prophet that you'd looked . . . but this is something different. . . . Well, something more ..."

And he told Mr. Weasley everything he had overheard between Malfoy and Snape, As Harry spoke, he saw Lupin's head turn a little toward him, taking in every word. When he had finished, there was silence, except for Celestina's crooning.

_**Oh, my poor heart, where has it gone? It's left me for a spell... **_

"Has it occurred to you, Harry," said Mr. Weasley, "that Snape was simply pretending — ?"

"Pretending to offer help, so that he could find out what Malfoy's up to?" said Harry quickly. "Yeah, I thought you'd say that. But how do we know?"

"It isn't our business to know," said Lupin unexpectedly. He had turned his back on the fire now and faced Harry across Mr. Weasley. Juliunna twitched in her sleep, but didn't stir.

"It's Dumbledore's business. Dumbledore trusts Severus, and that ought to be good enough for all of us."

"But," said Harry, "just say — just say Dumbledore's wrong about Snape —"

"People have said it, many times. It comes down to whether or not you trust Dumbledore's judgment. I do; therefore, I trust Severus."

"But Dumbledore can make mistakes," argued Harry. "He says it himself. And you" — he looked Lupin straight in the eye — "do you honestly like Snape?"

"I neither like nor dislike Severus," said Lupin. "No, Harry, I am speaking the truth," he added, as Harry pulled a skeptical expression. "We shall never be bosom friends, perhaps; after all that happened between James and Sirius and Severus, there is too much bitterness there. But I do not forget that during the year I taught at Hogwarts, Severus made the Wolfsbane Potion for me every month, made it perfectly, so that I did not have to suffer as I usually do at the full moon."

"But he _'accidentally'_ let it slip that you're a werewolf, so you had to leave!" said Harry angrily.

Lupin shrugged. "The news would have leaked out anyway. We both know he wanted my job, but he could have wreaked much worse damage on me by tampering with the potion. He kept me healthy. I must be grateful."

"Maybe he didn't dare mess with the potion with Dumbledore watching him!" said Harry.

"You are determined to hate him, Harry," said Lupin with a faint smile. "And I understand; with James as your father, with Sirius as your godfather, you have inherited an old prejudice. By all means tell Dumbledore what you have told Arthur and me, but do not expect him to share your view of the matter; do not even expect him to be surprised by what you tell him. It might have been on Dumbledore's orders that Severus questioned Draco." ;

_**. . . and now you've torn it quite apart I'll thank you to give back my heart! **_

Celestina ended her song on a very long, high-pitched note and loud applause issued out of the wireless, which Mrs. Weasley joined in with enthusiastically.

"Eez eet over?" said Fleur loudly. "Thank goodness, what an 'orrible —"

"Shall we have a nightcap, then?" asked Mr. Weasley loudly, leaping to his feet. "Who wants eggnog?"

"What have you been up to lately?" Harry asked Lupin, as Mr. Weasley bustled off to fetch the eggnog, and everybody else stretched and broke into conversation.

"Oh, I've been underground," said Lupin. "Almost literally. That's why I haven't been able to write, Harry; sending letters to you would have been something of a giveaway."

"What do you mean?" '

"I've been living among my fellows, my equals," said Lupin. "Werewolves," he added, at Harry's look of incomprehension. "Nearly all of them are on Voldemort's side. Dumbledore wanted a spy and here I was . . . ready-made."

He sounded a little bitter, and perhaps realized it, for he smiled more warmly as he went on, "I am not complaining; it is necessary work and who can do it better than I? However, it has been difficult gaining their trust. I bear the unmistakable signs of having tried to live among wizards, you see, whereas they have shunned normal society and live on the margins, stealing — and sometimes killing — to eat."

"How come they like Voldemort?"

"They think that, under his rule, they will have a better life," said Lupin. "And it is hard to argue with Greyback out there. . . ."

"Who's Greyback?"

"You haven't heard of him?" Lupin's hands closed convulsively in his lap. "Fenir Greyback is, perhaps, the most savage werewolf alive today. He regards it as his mission in life to bite and to contaminate as many people as possible; he wants to create enough were-wolves to overcome the wizards. Voldemort has promised him prey in return for his services. Greyback specializes in children. . . . Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards. Voldemort has threatened to unleash him upon people's sons and daughters; it is a threat that usually produces good results."

Lupin paused and then said, "It was Greyback who bit me."

"What?" said Harry, astonished. "When — when you were a kid, you mean?"

"Yes. My father had offended him. I did not know, for a very long time, the identity of the werewolf who had attacked me; I even felt pity for him, thinking that he had had no control, knowing by then how it felt to transform. But Greyback is not like that.

At the full moon, he positions himself close to victims, ensuring that he is near enough to strike. He plans it all. And this is the man Voldemort is using to marshal the werewolves. I cannot pretend that my particular brand of reasoned argument is making much headway against Greyback's insistence that we werewolves deserve blood, that we ought to revenge ourselves on normal people." "But you are normal!" said Harry fiercely. "You've just got a — a problem —"

Lupin burst out laughing. "Sometimes you remind me a lot of James. He called it my 'furry little problem in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit."

He accepted a glass of eggnog from Mr. Weasley with a word of thanks, looking slightly more cheerful, Harry, meanwhile, felt a rush of excitement: This last mention of his father had reminded him that there was something he had been looking forward to asking Lupin.

"Have you ever heard of someone called the Half-Blood Prince?"

"The Half-Blood what?"

"Prince," said Harry, watching him closely for signs of recognition.

"There are no Wizarding princes," said Lupin, now smiling. "Is this a title you re thinking of adopting? I should have thought being 'the Chosen One' would be enough."

"It's nothing to do with me!" said Harry indignantly. "The Half-Blood Prince is someone who used to go to Hogwarts, I've got his old Potions book. He wrote spells all over it, spells he invented. One of them was Levicorpus —"

"Oh, that one had a great vogue during my time at Hogwarts," said Lupin reminiscently. "There were a few months in my fifth year when you couldn't move for being hoisted into the air by your ankle."

"My dad used it," said Harry. "I saw him in the Pensive, he used it on Snape."

He tried to sound casual, as though this was a throwaway comment of no real importance, but he was not sure he had achieved the right effect; Lupin's smile was a little too understanding.

"Yes," he said, "but he wasn't the only one. As I say, it was very popular. . . . You know how these spells come and go. , . ."

"But it sounds like it was invented while you were at school," Harry persisted.

"Not necessarily," said Lupin. "Jinxes go in and out of fashion like everything else."

He looked into Harry's face and then said quietly, "James was a pureblood, Harry, and I promise you, he never asked us to call him 'Prince.'"

Abandoning pretense, Harry said, "And it wasn't Sirius? Or you?"

"Definitely not."

"Oh." Harry stared into the fire. "I just thought — well, he's helped me out a lot in Potions classes, the Prince has."

"How old is this book, Harry?"

"I dunno, I've never checked."

"Well, perhaps that will give you some clue as to when the Prince was at Hogwarts," said Lupin.

Shortly after this, Fleur decided to imitate Celestina singing "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love," which was taken by everyone, once they had glimpsed Mrs. Weasley's expression, to be the cue to go to bed. Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at Juliunna and just like during the summer, she was slowly levitated into the air as Mrs. Weasley moved up the stairs. Harry and Ron climbed all the way up to Ron's attic bedroom, where a camp bed had been added for Harry.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

**Normal Pov**

"She's got to be joking. . . ."

Harry woke with a start to find a bulging stocking lying over the end of his bed. He put on his glasses and looked around; the tiny window was almost completely obscured with snow and, in front of it, Ron was sitting bolt upright in bed and examining what appeared to be a thick gold chain.

"What's that?" asked Harry. '

"Its from Lavender," said Ron, sounding revolted. "She can't honestly think I'd wear ..."

Harry looked more closely and let out a shout of laughter, Dangling from the chain in large gold letters were the words:

'_**My sweetheart'**_

"Nice," he said. "Classy. You should definitely wear it in front of Fred and George."

"If you tell them," said Ron, shoving the necklace out of sight under his pillow, "I — I — I'll —"

"Stutter at me?" said Harry, grinning. "Come on, would I?"

"How could she think I'd like something like that, though?" Ron demanded of thin air, looking rather shocked.

"Well, think back," said Harry. "Have you ever let it slip that you'd like to go out in public with the words 'My Sweetheart' round your neck?"

"Well... we don't really talk much," said Ron. "It's mainly . . ."

"Snogging," said Harry.

"Well, yeah," said Ron. He hesitated a moment, then said, "Is Hermione really going out with McLaggen?"

"I dunno," said Harry. "They were at Slughorn's party together, but I don't think it went that well."

Ron looked slightly more cheerful as he delved deeper into his stocking.

Harry's presents included a sweater with a large olden Snitch worked onto the front, hand-knitted by Mrs. Weasley, a large box of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products from the twins, and a slightly damp, moldy-smelling package that came with a label reading _To Master, From Kreacher, _

Harry stared at it. "D'you reckon this is safe to open?" he asked. "Can't be anything dangerous, all our mail's still being searched at the Ministry," replied Ron, though he was eyeing the parcel suspiciously.

"I didn't think of giving Kreacher anything. Do people usually give their house-elves Christmas presents?" asked Harry, prodding the parcel cautiously.

"Hermione would," said Ron. "But let's wait and see what it is before you start feeling guilty."

A moment later, Harry had given a loud yell and leapt out of his camp bed; the package contained a large number of maggots. "Nice," said Ron, roaring with laughter. "Very thoughtful."

"I'd rather have them than that necklace," said Harry, which sobered Ron up at once.

Everybody was wearing new sweaters when they all sat down for Christmas lunch, everyone except Fleur (on whom, it appeared, Mrs. Weasley had not wanted to waste one) and Mrs. Weasley herself, who was sporting a brand-new midnight blue witch's hat glittering with what looked like tiny star like diamonds, and a spectacular golden necklace.

"Fred and George gave them to me! Aren't they beautiful?"

"Well, we find we appreciate you more and more, Mum, now we're washing our own socks," said George, waving an airy hand. "Parsnips, Remus?"

"Juliunna, I want you to know that you did get Christmas Presents." Molly said when Juliunna walked downstairs for the first time today. She was frowning. "Really?" Juliunna asked hopefully.

"Yes. But I don't want you to touch them yet. Your… Father sent them."

"Yay. I bet their expensive. Where are they?"

"I sent them to Dumbledore to make sure their not cursed." Molly said.

"What?!" Juliunna groaned.

"Yes, he's going to-!"

The fireplace grew bright green. Juliunna jumped up. Dumbledore wasn't there. Instead, there was a large, black compost trash bag. She walked over and grabbed the bag.

"Yay!" She squealed. She sat down on Harry's other side and lifted the bag on the table.

"What'd you get?" Ginny asked.

"Let's see." She dumped the bag upside down and multiple boxes fell onto the floor.

"Their not just from Voldemort." Fred said, picking up some of the wrapped boxes and examining the tabs.

"Yeah." Ron said, reaching out to pick one up. "This ones from Bellatrix Lestrange. This ones from Malfoy. This ones from Malfoy's mother. Ooh, this ones from Hagrid."

"Well there were so much presents that it didn't really matter. I just accio'd all of them into the bag." Molly sighed.

"Heh. Oooh." Juliunna cooed, opening Draco's first present. It was a silver, large locket. Inside and outside, there was a bright, liquid diamond substance. Juliunna put it on instantly, and it shone in the light.

"Ooh-!" Ron said, reaching out to touch the smooth surface of the necklace, but Juliunna smacked his hand away.

"Your gonna throw out Bellatrix's present right?" Harry asked. Juliunna nodded absently, digging through the box. She gasped with an air of shocked.

"What?" Mrs. Weasley said as everyone leaned forward. "Nothing." Juliunna said quickly, snatching something out of the box and holding it against her chest, hiding it.

"Nothing-!" She repeated, but Ron leaned forward. He grabbed it out of his hand with a smirk, and she growled at him. "It's none of your business!"

"It's a note about that necklace your wearing. Look, it's so sweet! Its been in his family for generations, and he's giving it to you. Oh, that's pretty cool." Ron cooed sarcastically. Juliunna smacked Ron across the face hard, and Harry jumped and wrapped his arm around her middle. "No! No!"  
Fred grabbed Ron by the shoulder and pulled him away from Juliunna, who was trying to claw his face. "No!" Molly screamed. "What is the matter?!"

"Ron read my diary and told the whole Gryffindor House about it!" Juliunna shouted, trying to kick Harry away. "What?!" Molly asked, looking to Ron, who was red faced. "No."

"Yes he did! Hogwarts has been hell for Hermione and me because he keeps insulting us because he doesn't get his way!" Juliunna shouted. Her hair was thrown astray as she stomped on Harry's feet.

"He told everyone about my deepest secrets because I disagreed with why his choices about Hermione! And guess what, Hermione's been shunned because Ron hates how she had an old boyfriend. He's making things tense between Draco and I, and he throws this disgusting dog breathed girl in Mione's face because he's so jealous and a-! **(She said a word that made Mrs. Weasley gasp and the twins snicker)**!" Juliunna growled at Ron.

"Is this true Ron?" Mrs. Weasley said, turning to Ron. "No!"  
"Harry?" Mrs. Weasley said, turning to Harry. Harry nodded once.

Mrs. Weasley raged on for a long half an hour. Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley took turns yelling at Ron, and to Juliunna's excitement, Mrs. Weasley banned Ron from using his using his broomstick here, confiscated all his presents with a promise that he could use them when he got back from summer vacation, and made him make amends with Juliunna.

"You have no idea how things are hard for a girl!" Molly screamed at Ron. Ron lifted his hand out. "Shake please." He smiled grimly. He leaned forward and whispered, "I'm sorry."

She grudgingly shook his hand, squeezing as tight as she could so that Ron started to wince. "Thank you for your apology Ron. Admit that you were wrong."

"What?" He asked.

"Admit. That you. Were wrong." She sounded out loudly, squeezing his hand with every pause. Everyone looked to Ron. "Okay. Okay I was wrong. And I'm sorry for that." He sighed.

"Good. Now say it like you mean it."

"Oh come on-!"

"When we get back to school, you are," She leaned down, refusing to let go of Ron's now pulsing hand, and pressed her lips to his ear. "You are going to tell Draco that what we did was a one time thing and never again." She whispered.

"Eh? Oh, okay." He whimpered.

"And when we get to Hogwarts, your going to apologize to Hermione." She said with a sneer.

"Of course." Ron said quickly.

"Okay then, Merry Christmas." Juliunna said. She let go of Ron's pulsing hand and gave him a quick hug.

**At Dinner**

"Harry, you've got a maggot in your hair," said Ginny cheerfully, leaning across the table to pick it out; Harry felt goose bumps erupt up his neck that had nothing to do with the maggot.

"'Ow 'orrible," said Fleur, with an affected little shudder.

"Yes, isn't it?" Ron smirked. "Gravy, Fleur?"

In his eagerness to help her, he knocked the gravy boat flying; Bill waved his wand and the gravy soared up in the air and returned meekly to the boat.

"You are as bad as 'zat Tonks," said Fleur to Ron, talking over Juliunna's quiet giggles. "She is always knocking —"

"I invited dear Tonks to come along today," said Mrs. Weasley, setting down the carrots with unnecessary force and glaring at Fleur. "But she wouldn't come. Have you spoken to her lately, Remus?"

"No, I haven't been in contact with anybody very much," said Lupin. "But Tonks has got her own family to go to, hasn't she?"

"Hmmm," said Mrs. Weasley. "Maybe. I got the impression she was planning to spend Christmas alone, actually."

She gave Lupin an annoyed look, as though it was all his fault she was getting Fleur for a daughter-in-law instead of Tonks, but Harry, glancing across at Fleur, who was now feeding Bill bits of turkey off her own fork, thought that Mrs. Weasley was fighting a long-lost battle.

"Arthur!" said Mrs. Weasley suddenly. She had risen from her chair; her hand was pressed over her heart and she was staring out of the kitchen window. "Arthur — it's Percy!"

"What?"

Mr. Weasley looked around. Everybody looked quickly at the window; Ginny stood up for a better look. There, sure enough, was Percy Weasley, striding across the snowy yard, his horn-rimmed glasses glinting in the sunlight. He was not, however, alone.

"Arthur, he's — he's with the Minister!"

And sure enough, the man Harry had seen in the Daily Prophet was following along in Percy's wake, limping slightly, his mane of graying hair and his black cloak flecked with snow. Before any of them could say anything, before Mr. and Mrs. Weasley could do more than exchange stunned looks, the back door opened and there stood Percy.

There was a moment's painful silence. Then Percy said rather stiffly, "Merry Christmas, Mother."

"Oh, Percy!" said Mrs. Weasley, and she threw herself into his arms.

Rufus Scrimgeour paused in the doorway, leaning on his walking stick and smiling as he observed this affecting scene.

"You must forgive this intrusion," he said, when Mrs. Weasley looked around at him, beaming and wiping her eyes. "Percy and I were in the vicinity — working, you know — and he couldn't resist dropping in and seeing you all."

But Percy showed no sign of wanting to greet any of the rest of the family. He stood, poker straight and awkward looking, and stared over everybody else's heads. Mr. Weasley, Fred, and George were all observing him, stony-faced.

"Is this the jerk?" Juliunna whispered to Fred. "Yep." He said, popping his lips.

"Please, come in, sit down, Minister!" fluttered Mrs. Weasley, straightening her hat. Have a little turkey, or some pudding. ... I mean —"

"No, no, my dear Molly," said Scrimgeour. Harry guessed that he had checked her name with Percy before they entered the house. "I don't want to intrude, wouldn't be here at all if Percy hadn't wanted to see you all so badly. . . ."

"Oh, Perce!" said Mrs. Weasley tearfully, reaching up to kiss him.

". , . We've only looked in for five minutes, so I'll have a stroll around the yard while you catch up with Percy. No, no, I assure you I don't want to butt in! Well, if anybody cared to show me your charming garden . . . Ah, that young man's finished, why doesn't he take a stroll with me? Ah, and maybe that girl too-!"

"No thank you." Juliunna said, helping herself to some more potatoes and gravy. "I've got a few thank you letters to write. Oh, by the way Mrs. Weasley, Draco invited me to his house the night before New Years. He said he would see me back on the train. Can I go?" Juliunna smiled hopefully. Mrs. Weasley looked torn.

"Erm… Um… Yes. Harry, show respect to the Minister. And if you want any food Minister, its right here." Molly said. Harry and the Minister walked outside, Harry looking rather grudgingly.

…

Late in the afternoon, a few days after New Year, Harry, Ron, and Ginny lined up beside the kitchen fire to return to Hogwarts. The Ministry had arranged this one-off connection to the Floo Network to return students quickly and safely to the school. Only Mrs. Weasley was there to say good-bye, as Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, Bill, and Fleur were all at work. Mrs. Weasley dissolved into tears at the moment of parting. Admittedly, it took very little to set her off lately; she had been crying on and off ever since Percy had stormed from the house on Christmas Day with his glasses splattered with mashed parsnip (for which Fred, George, and Ginny all claimed credit).

"Don't cry, Mum," said Ginny, patting her on the back as Mrs. Weasley sobbed into her shoulder. "It's okay. ..."

"Yeah, don't worry about us," said Ron, permitting his mother to plant a very wet kiss on his cheek, "or about Percy. He's such a prat, it's not really a loss, is it?"

Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever as she enfolded Harry in her arms.

"Promise me you'll look after yourself.. .. Stay out of trouble. ..."

"I always do, Mrs. Weasley," said Harry. "I like a quiet life, you know me."

She gave a watery chuckle and stood back. "Be good, then, all of you. ..."

Harry stepped into the emerald fire and shouted "Hogwarts!" He had one last fleeting view of the Weasleys' kitchen and Mrs. Weasley's tearful face before the flames engulfed him; spinning very fast, he caught blurred glimpses of other Wizarding rooms, which were whipped out of sight before he could get a proper look; then he was slowing down, finally stopping squarely in the fireplace in Professor McGonagall's office. She barely glanced up from her work as he clambered out over the grate.

"Evening, Potter. Try not to get too much ash on the carpet."

"Ok, Professor."

Harry straightened his glasses and flattened his hair as Ron came spinning into view. When Ginny had arrived, all three of them trooped out of McGonagall's office and off toward Gryffindor Tower. Harry glanced out of the corridor windows as they passed; the sun was already sinking over grounds carpeted in deeper snow than had lain over the Burrow garden. In the distance, he could see Hagrid feeding Buckbeak in front of his cabin.

"Baubles," said Ron confidently, when they reached the Fat Lady, who was looking rather paler than usual and winced at his loud voice.

"No," she said.

"What d'you mean, 'no' ?

"There is a new password," she said. "And please don't shout."

"But we've been away, how're we supposed to — ?"

"Harry! Ginny!"

Hermione and Juliunna were hurrying toward them, very pink-faced and wearing a cloak, hat, and gloves.

"I got back a couple of hours ago, I've just been down to visit Hagrid and Buck — I mean Witherwings," she said breathlessly. "Did you have a good Christmas?"

"Yeah," said Ron at once, "pretty eventful, Rufus Scrim —"

"I've got something for you, Harry," said Hermione, neither looking at Ron nor giving any sign that she had heard him. "Oh, hang on — password. Abstinence."

"Precisely," said the Fat Lady in a feeble voice, and swung forward to reveal the portrait hole.

"What's up with her?" Juliunna asked, stroking the liquid diamond necklace.

"Overindulged over Christmas, apparently," said Hermione, rolling her eyes as she led the way into the packed common room. "She and her friend Violet drank their way through all the wine in that picture of drunk monks down by the Charms corridor. Anyway..."

She rummaged in her pocket for a moment, then pulled out a scroll of parchment with Dumbledore's writing on it.

"Great," said Harry, unrolling it at once to discover that his next lesson with Dumbledore was scheduled for the following night. "I've got loads to tell him — and you. Let's sit down —"

But at that moment there was a loud squeal of "Won-Won!" and Lavender Brown came hurtling out of nowhere and flung herself into Ron's arms. Several onlookers sniggered; Hermione gave a tinkling laugh and said, "There's a cable over here... Coming. Ginny?"

"No, thanks, I said I'd meet Dean," said Ginny, though Harry could not help noticing that she did not sound very enthusiastic. Leaving Ron and Lavender locked in a kind of vertical wrestling, match, Harry led Hermione and Juliunna over to the spare table.

"So how was your Christmas?" They asked Juliunna.

"Mine was fine. But you mean my New Years, actually. It was terrific! I was treated like a princess." Juliunna smirked. "Draco and his mother took me out to his fancy Wizard Ball House in Paris!"

"Paris?" Hermione said.

"Yes. Their rich Hermione, its not that surprising." Juliunna laughed. "So how was your Christmas?" She asked.

"Oh, fine," she shrugged. "Nothing special. How was it at Won-Won's?"

"I'll tell you in a minute," said Harry. "Look, Hermione, can't you —"

"No, I can't," she said flatly. "So don't even ask."

"I thought maybe, you know, over Christmas —"

"It was the Fat Lady who drank a vat of five-hundred-year-old wine, Harry, not me. So what was this important news you wanted to tell me?"

She looked too fierce to argue with at that moment, so Harry dropped the subject of Ron and recounted all that he had overheard between Malfoy and Snape. When he had finished, Hermione and Juliunna sat in thought for a moment and then said, "Don't you think — ?"

"— he was pretending to offer help so that he could trick Malfoy into telling him what he's doing?"

"Well, yes," said Hermione.

"Ron's dad and Lupin think so," Harry said grudgingly. "But this definitely proves Malfoy's planning something, you can't deny that."

"No, I can't," she answered slowly.

"And he's acting on Voldemort's orders, just like I said!"

"Hmm .. . did either of them actually mention Voldemort's name?"

Harry frowned, trying to remember. "I'm not sure ... Snape definitely said 'your master,' and who else would that be?"

"I don't know," said Hermione, biting her lip. "Maybe his father?"

She stared across the room, apparently lost in thought, not even noticing Lavender tickling Ron. "How's Lupin?"

"Wait a minute. Harry, why didn't you mention this to me over break? " Juliunna said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry… But things were tense and Ron was always hanging with me. Whenever you came in the room and saw him, you just walked back out."

"What about when he apologized?" Juliunna said, crossing her arms.

"I didn't think it was much important." Harry admitted. "I thought I could just tell you when I told Hermione. And honestly, I forgot." He said.

"Yep. Anyway Hermione, you asked how Remus was?"

"Yeah."

"Not great," said Harry, and he told them all about Lupin's mission among the werewolves and the difficulties he was facing. "Have you heard of this Fenir Greyback?"

"Yes, I have!" said Hermione, sounding startled. "And so have you, Harry!"

"When, History of Magic? You know full well I never listened ..."

"No, no, not History of Magic — Malfoy threatened Borgin with him!" Juliunna said, crossing her arms grumpily. "Back in Knockturn Alley during the summer, don't you remember? He told Borgin that Greyback was an old family friend and that he'd be checking up on Borgin's progress!"

Harry gaped at her. "I forgot! But this proves Malfoy s a Death Eater, how else could he be in contact with Greyback and telling him what to do?"

"It is pretty suspicious," breathed Hermione. "Unless . . ."

"Oh, come on," said Harry in exasperation, "you can't get round this one!"

"Well . . . there is the possibility it was an empty threat."

"You're unbelievable, you are," said Harry, shaking his head.

"We'll see who's right. . . . You'll be eating your words, Hermione, just like the Ministry. Oh yeah, I had a row with Rufus Scrimgeour as well. . . ."

And the rest of the evening passed amicably with the three of them abusing the Minister of Magic, for Hermione, like Ron, thought that after all the Ministry had put Harry through the previous year, they had a great deal of nerve asking him for help now.

"But I don't understand." Juliunna said. "It wasn't Scrimgeour's fault that Fudge was bossing everyone around. It wasn't the Ministry who were bullying you, it was Fudge himself. If anyone had said differently, they would have been fired immediately. Do you expect them to risk their jobs to support you? Don't they have families to feed?" Juliunna said.

At that, Harry frowned, wondering if he should write to the Minister and say 'I'm Sorry'.

The new term started next morning with a pleasant surprise for the sixth years: a large sign had been pinned to the common room notice boards overnight.

_**APPARITION LESSONS **_

_**If you are seventeen years of age, or will turn seventeen on or before the 31st August next, you are eligible for a twelve-week course of Apparition Lessons from a Ministry of Magic Apparition instructor. Please sign below if you would like to participate. Cost: 12 Galleons.**_

Juliunna and Draco signed their names first, and then turned to sit on the couch. "You know what Dray, I think you should take a break from whatever you doing. You don't look so good." She sighed. He laid down and put his head in her lap as she massaged his tired shoulders. "I'm fine." He yawned.

"No your not." She said, and ran a hand through his taught blonde hair. He yawned and relaxed into her warm embrace. "What time did you go to bed last night?"

"Four o'clock."

"Draco, that was four hours ago." Juliunna sighed. "I'm… Busy… It's not going so well." He yawned deeply.

"Huh?" She asked him, leaning forward to look him in the eye. He was half asleep. "I'm trying my best, but its taking a lot of time. I'm so exhausted." He yawned again, snuggling deeper into her lap.

"Is this the job you've been hinting about?" Juliunna asked. Draco didn't seem to recognize her. He was so exhausted, his eyes were dropping into slits. "Yes." He said softly. His head swayed uncertainly as he shifted.

"So its true." She said, looking set at the Common Room board.

He didn't say anything, but instead fell asleep in her arms.

…

The next day Harry confided in both Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione the task that Dumbledore had set him, though separately, for Hermione still refused to remain in Ron's presence longer than it took to give him a contemptuous look.

Ron thought that Harry was unlikely to have any trouble with Slughorn at all.

"He loves you," he said over breakfast, waving an airy forkful of fried egg.  
"Won't refuse you anything, will he? Not his little Potions Prince. Just hang back after class this afternoon and ask him."

Hermione, however, took a gloomier view.

"He must be determined to hide what really happened if Dumbledore couldn't get it out of him," she said in a low voice, as they stood in the deserted, snowy courtyard at break. Juliunna agreed with her, but her mind was more set on the Horcruxes. "Horcruxes ... Horcruxes ... I've never even heard of them ..."

"You haven't?"

Harry was disappointed; he had hoped that Hermione and or Jules might have been able to give him a clue as to what Horcruxes were.

"They must be really advanced Dark magic, or why would Voldemort have wanted to know about them? I think it's going to be difficult to get the information, Harry, you'll have to be very careful about how you approach Slughorn, think out a strategy ..." Hermione said, rubbing her chin. Juliunna peeked over Hermione's shoulder at the book she was reading.

"Ron reckons I should just hang back after Potions this afternoon ..."

"Oh, well, if Won-Won thinks that, you'd better do it," she said, flaring up at once. "After all, when has Won-Won's judgment ever been faulty?"

"Hermione, can't you —"

"No!" She said angrily, and stormed away, leaving Harry and Juliunna alone and ankle-deep in snow.

Potions lessons were uncomfortable enough these days, seeing as Harry, Ron and Hermione had to share a desk. Today, Hermione moved her cauldron around the table so that she was close to Ernie, and ignored both Harry and Ron.

"What have you done?" Ron muttered to Harry, looking at Hermione's haughty profile.

But before Harry could answer, Slughorn was calling for silence from the front of the room.

"Settle down, settle down, please! Quickly, now, lots of work to get through this afternoon! Golpalott's Third Law ... who can tell me -? But Miss Granger can, of course!" Juliunna scowled and put her hand down.

Hermione recited at top speed: "Golpalott's-Third-Law- states-that-the-antidote-for-a-blended-poison-will-be-equal-to- more-than-the-sum-of-the-antidotes-for-each-of-the-separate- components."

"Precisely!" beamed Slughorn. "Ten points for Gryffindor! Now, if we accept Golpalott's Third Law as true ..."

Harry was going to have to take Slughorn's word for it that Golpalott's Third Law was true, because he had not understood any of it. Nobody apart from Hermione and Juliunna seemed to be following what Slughorn said next, either.

"... which means, of course, that assuming we have achieved correct identification of the potion's ingredients by Scarpin's Revelaspell, our primary aim is not the relatively simple one of selecting antidotes to those ingredients in a from of themselves, but to find that added component which will, by an almost alchemical process, transform these disparate elements –"

Ron was sitting beside Harry with his mouth half-open, doodling absently on his new copy of Advanced Potion-Making. Ron kept forgetting that he could no longer rely on Hermione to help him out of trouble when he failed to grasp what was going on.

"... and so," finished Slughorn, "I want each of you to come and take one of these phials from my desk. You are to create an antidote for the poison within it before the end of the lesson. Good luck, and don't forget your protective gloves!"

Hermione had left her stool and was halfway towards Siughorn's desk before the rest of the class had realized it was time to move, and by the time Harry, Ron and Ernie returned to the table, she had already tipped the contents of her phial into her cauldron and was kindling a fire underneath it.

"It's a shame that the Prince won't be able to help you much with this, Harry," she said brightly as she straightened up. "You have to understand the principles involved this time. No short cuts or cheats!"

Annoyed, Harry uncorked the poison he had taken from Siughorn's desk, which was a garish shade of pink, tipped it into his cauldron and lit a fire underneath it. He did not have the faintest idea what he was supposed to do next. He glanced at Ron, who was now standing there looking rather gormless, having copied everything Harry had done.

"You sure the Prince hasn't got any tips?" Ron muttered to Harry.

Harry pulled out his trusty copy of Advanced Potion-Making and turned to the chapter on Antidotes. There was Golpalott's Third Law, stated word for word as Hermione had recited it, but not a single illuminating note in the Prince's hand to explain what it meant. Apparently the Prince, like Hermione, had had no difficulty understanding it.

"Nothing," Said Harry gloomily.

Hermione was now waving her wand enthusiastically over her cauldron. Unfortunately, they could not copy the spell she was doing because she was now so good at non-verbal incantations that she did not need to say the words aloud. Harry looked up ahead at Juliunna, who was whispering feverish instructions in Draco's ear. Judging by the way Malfoy scowled at her, the instructions were, 'Do your own work'. She turned back to her potion and waved her wand, and her wand glowed bright red. Like Hermione, she had no need to utter out her spell work aloud anymore.

Ernie Macmillan, however, was muttering, "Specialis revelio!" over his cauldron, which sounded impressive, so Harry and Ron hastened to imitate him.

It took Harry only five minutes to realize that his reputation as the best potion-maker in the class was crashing around his ears. Slughorn had peered hopefully into his cauldron on his first circuit of the dungeon, preparing to exclaim in delight as he usually did, and instead had with-drawn his head hastily, coughing, as the smell of bad eggs overwhelmed him. Hermione's expression could not have been any smugger; she had loathed being out-performed in every Potions class. She was now decanting the mysteriously separated ingredients of her poison into ten different crystal phials. More to avoid watching this irritating sight than any-thing else, Harry bent over the Half-Blood Prince's book and turned a few pages with unnecessary force.

And there it was, scrawled right across a long list of antidotes.

_**Just shove a bezoar down their throats.**_

Harry stared at these words for a moment. Hadn't he once, long ago, heard of bezoars? Hadn't Snape mentioned them in their first ever Potions lesson? _'A stone taken from the stomach of a goat, which will protect from most poisons.'_

It was not an answer to the Golpalott problem, and had Snape still been their teacher, Harry would not have dared do it, but this was a moment for desperate measures. He hastened towards the store cupboard and rummaged within it, pushing aside unicorn horns and tangles of dried herbs until he found, at the very back, a small card box on which had been scribbled the word _'Bezoars'._

He opened the box just as Slughorn called, "Two minutes left, everyone!"  
Inside were half a dozen shriveled brown objects, looking more like dried-up kidneys than real stones. Harry seized one, put the box back in the cupboard and hurried back to his cauldron.

"Time's ... **UP**!" called Slughorn genially. "Well, let's see how you've done! Blaise, ... what have you got for me?"

Slowly, Slughorn moved around the room, examining the various antidotes. "Nice Miss Riddle. Now, I didn't expect everyone to finish, but you were close, judging by the texture." Slughorn laughed merrily, and when he turned away from her, Harry had caught the look of great disappointment on Juliunna's face. It was a flash. To his shock, he could have almost sworn he saw a glint of red in her eyes, but as quick as it had gone, it disappeared.

Nobody had finished the task, although Hermione was trying to cram a few more ingredients into her bottle before Slughorn reached her. Ron had given up completely, and was merely trying to avoid breathing in the putrid fumes issuing from his cauldron. Harry stood there waiting, the bezoar clutched in a slightly sweaty hand.

Slughorn reached their table last. He sniffed Ernie's potion and passed on to Ron's with a grimace. He did not linger over Ron's cauldron, but backed away swiftly, retching slightly.

"And you, Harry," he said. "What have you got to show me?"

Harry held out his hand, the bezoar sitting on his palm.

Slughorn looked down at it for a full ten seconds. Harry wondered, for a moment, whether he was going to shout at him. Then he threw back his head and roared with laughter.

"You've got a nerve, boy!" He boomed, taking the bezoar and holding it up so that the class could see it. "Oh, you're like your mother ... well, I can't fault you ... a bezoar would certainly act as an antidote to all these potions!"

Hermione, who was sweaty-faced and had soot on her nose, looked livid. Her half-finished antidote, comprising fifty-two ingredients including a chunk of her own hair, bubbled sluggishly behind Slughorn, who had eyes for nobody but Harry.

"And you thought of a bezoar all by yourself, did you, Harry?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"That's the individual spirit a real potion-maker needs!" Said Slughorn happily, before Harry could reply. "Just like his mother, she had the same intuitive grasp of potion-making, it's undoubtedly from Lily he gets it ... yes, Harry, yes, if you've got a bezoar to hand, of course that would do the trick ... although as they don't work on everything, and are pretty rare, it's still worth knowing how to mix antidotes ..."

The only person in the room looking angrier than Hermione was Malfoy, who, Harry was pleased to see, had spilled some-thing that looked like cat sick over himself. Before either of them could express their fury that Harry had come top of the class by not doing any work, however, the bell rang. "

"Time to pack up!" said Slughorn. "And an extra ten points to Gryffindor for sheer cheek!"

"Here you go Dray," Juliunna said, pointing her wand at Draco's chest. The cat sick disappeared, and Draco smiled. "Thanks." He muttered. Juliunna waved at Harry as she and Draco walked out of the class, and he waved back.

Still chuckling, Slughorn waddled back to his desk at the front of the dungeon.

Harry dawdled behind, taking an inordinate amount of time to do up his bag. Neither Ron nor Hermione wished him luck as they left; both looked rather annoyed. At last Harry and Slughorn were the only two left in the room. Time to ask Slughorn about Horcruxes.

…

Neither Ron nor Hermione was at all sympathetic when Harry told them of this disastrous interview Hermione was still seething at the way Harry had triumphed without doing the work properly. Ron was resentful that Harry hadn't slipped him a bezoar, too.

"It would've just looked stupid if we'd both done it!" Said Harry irritably. "Look, I had to try and soften him up so I could ask him about Voldemort, didn't I? Oh, will you get a grip!" He added in exasperation, as Ron winced at the sound of the name.

Infuriated by his failure and by Ron and Hermione's attitudes, Harry brooded for the next few days over what to do next about Slughorn. He decided that, for the time being, he would let Slughorn think that he had forgotten all about Horcruxes; it was surely best to lull him into a false sense of security before returning to the attack.

"Yes Harry, what a great idea." Juliunna told him in the library one day. Harry had to hang out with her, when she wasn't with Malfoy, because Hermione and Ron were both being sullen. He found that this brainiac wasn't as bad as Hermione. At least this one tried to make you happy.

When Harry did not question Slughorn again, the Potions master reverted to his usual affectionate treatment of him, and appeared to have put the matter from his mind. Harry awaited an invitation to one of his little evening parties, determined to accept this time, even if he had to reschedule Quidditch practice. Unfortunately, however, no such invitation arrived. Harry checked with Hermione, Juliunna, and Ginny: neither of them had received an invitation and nor, as far as they knew, had anybody else. Harry could not help wondering whether this meant that Slughorn was not quite as forgetful as he appeared, simply determined to give Harry no additional opportunities to question him.

Meanwhile, the Hogwarts library had failed Hermione for the first lime in living memory. She was so shocked, she even forgot that she was annoyed at Harry for his trick with the bezoar.

"I haven't found one single explanation of what Horcruxes do!" she told him. "Not a single one! I've been right through the restricted section and even in the most horrible books, where they tell you how to brew the most gruesome potions -nothing! All I could find was this, in the introduction to Magick Most Evil — listen — _'of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction'_... I mean, why mention it, then?" She said impatiently, slamming the old book shut; it let out a ghostly wail. "Oh, shut up," she snapped, stuffing it back into her bag.

"Harry," Juliunna told him one day. "How about I just owl my father? He'd probably tell me-!"

"Dumbledore said it would be crucially dangerous if Voldemort knew we were searching Horcruxes." Harry whispered to her urgently. She nodded. "Of course. _Dumbledore said it_," She muttered, but Harry just pushed another book her way.

…

The snow melted around the school as February arrived, to be replaced by cold, dreary wetness. Purplish-grey clouds hung low over the castle and a constant fall of chilly rain made the lawns slippery and muddy.

The upshot of this was that the sixth-years' first Apparition lesson, which was scheduled for a Saturday morning, so that no normal lessons would be missed, took place in the Great Hall instead of in the grounds.

When Harry and Hermione arrived in the Hall _(Ron had come down with Lavender, and Juliunna with Draco)_ they found that the tables had disappeared. Rain lashed against the high windows and the enchanted ceiling swirled darkly above them as they assembled in front of Professors McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick and Sprout, (the Heads of House),and a small wizard whom Harry took to be the Apparition Instructor from the Ministry. He was oddly colorless, with transparent eyelashes, wispy hair and an insubstantial air, as though a single gust of wind might blow him away. Harry wondered whether constant disappearances and reappearances had somehow diminished his substance, or whether this frail build was ideal for anyone wishing to vanish.

"Good morning," Said the Ministry wizard, when all the students had arrived and the Heads of House had called for quiet. "My name is Wilkie Twycross and I shall be your Ministry-Apparition Instructor for the next twelve weeks. I hope to be able to prepare you for your Apparition test in this time -!"

"Malfoy, be quiet and pay attention!" barked Professor McGonagall.

Everybody looked round. Malfoy had flushed a dull pink; he looked furious as he stepped away from Crabbe, with whom he appeared to have been having a whispered argument. Harry glanced quickly at Snape, who also looked annoyed, though Harry strongly suspected that this was less because of Malfoy's rudeness than the fact that McGonagall had reprimanded one of his house.

"By which time, many of you may be ready to take your test," Twycross continued, as though there had been no interruption.

"As you may know, it is usually impossible to Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts. The Headmaster has lifted this enchantment, purely within the Great Hall, for one hour, so as to enable you to practice. May I emphasize that you will not be able to Apparate outside the walls of this Hall, and that you would be unwise to try."

"I would like each of you to place yourselves now so that you have a clear five feet of space in front of you."

There was a great scrambling and jostling as people separated, banged into each other, and ordered others out of their space. The Heads of House moved among the students, marshalling them into position and breaking up arguments.

"Harry, where are you going?" Demanded Hermione.

But Harry did not answer; he was moving quickly through the crowd, past the place where Professor Flitwick was making squeaky attempts to position a few Ravenclaws, all of whom wanted to be near the front, past Professor Sprout, who was chivvying the Hufflepuffs into line, until, by dodging around Ernie Macmillan, he managed to position himself right at the back of the crowd, directly behind Malfoy, who was taking advantage of the general upheaval to continue his argument with Crabbe, standing five feet away and looking mutinous. On the other side of Malfoy was Juliunna looking curious, and at the same time trying not to listen.

"I don't know how much longer, all right?" Malfoy shot at him, oblivious to Harry standing right behind him. "It's taking longer than I thought it would."

Crabbe opened his mouth, but Malfoy appeared to second-guess what he was going to say.

"Look, it's none of your business what I'm doing, Crabbe, you and Goyle just do as you're told and keep a lookout!"

"! tell my friends what I'm up to, if I want them to keep a lookout for me," Harry said, just loud enough for Malfoy to hear him.

Malfoy spun round on the spot, his hand flying to his wand, but at that precise moment the four Heads of House shouted, "Quiet!" And silence fell again. Malfoy turned slowly to face the front.

"Thank you," Said Twycross. "Now then ..."

He waved his wand. Old-fashioned wooden hoops instantly appeared on the floor in from of every student.

The important things to remember when Apparating are the three Ds!' said Twycross. 'Destination, Determination, Deliberation!

"Step one: fix your mind firmly upon the desired destination," said Twycross. "In this case, the interior of your hoop. Kindly concentrate upon that destination now."

Everybody looked around furtively, to check that everyone else was staring into their hoop, then hastily did as they were told. Harry gazed at the circular patch of dusty floor enclosed by his hoop and tried hard to think of nothing else. This proved impossible, as he couldn't stop puzzling over what Malfoy was doing that needed lookouts.

"Step two," said Twycross, "Focus your determination to occupy the visualized space! Let your yearning to enter it flood from your mind to every particle of your body!"

Harry glanced around surreptitiously. A little way to his left, Ernie Macmillan was contemplating his hoop so hard that his face had turned pink; it looked as though he was straining to lay a Quaffle sized egg. Harry bit back a laugh and hastily returned his gaze to his own hoop.

"Step three," called Twycross, "And only when I give the command ... turn on the spot, feeling your way into nothingness, moving with deliberation. On my command, now ... one-!"

Harry glanced around again; lots of people were looking positively alarmed at being asked to Apparate so quickly.

Harry tried to fix his thoughts on his hoop again; he had already forgotten what the three D's stood for.

"THREE!"

Harry spun on the spot, lost his balance and nearly fell over. He was not the only one. The whole Hall was suddenly full of staggering people; Neville was flat on his back; Ernie Macmillan, on the other hand, had done a kind of pirouetting leap into his hoop and looked momentarily thrilled, until he caught sight of Dean Thomas roaring with laughter at him.

"Never mind, never mind," said Twycross dryly, who did not seem to have expected anything better. "Adjust your hoops, please, and back to your original positions ..."

Juliunna seemed to be furious at the fact that she hadn't gotten it right the first time, and when she met Harry's eyes, he saw the same glint of red that he was sure he had seen in Lord Voldemort's eyes.

The second attempt was no better than the first. The third was just as bad. Not until the fourth did anything exciting happen. There was a horrible screech of pain and everybody looked around, terrified, to see Susan Bones of Hufflepuff wobbling in her hoop with her left leg still standing five feet away where she had started.

The Heads of House converged on her; there was a great bang and a puff of purple smoke, which cleared to reveal Susan sobbing, reunited with her leg but looking horrified.

"Splinching, or the separation of random body parts," said Wilkie Twycross dispassionately, "Occurs when the mind is insufficiently determined. You must concentrate continually upon your destination, and move, without haste, but with deliberation ... thus."

Twycross stepped forwards, turned gracefully on the spot with his arms outstretched and vanished in a swirl of robes, reappearing at the back of the Hall. "Remember the three Ds," he said, "And try again ... one -two - three !"

But an hour later, Susan's Splinching was still the most interesting thing that had happened. Twycross did not seem discouraged. Fastening his cloak at his neck, he merely said, "Until next Saturday, everybody, and do not forget: Destination. Determination. Deliberation."

With that, he waved his wand, Vanishing the hoops, and walked out of the Hall accompanied by Professor McGonagall. Talk broke out at once as people began moving towards the Entrance Hall.

"How did you do?" Asked Ron, hurrying towards "Harry. I think I felt something the last time I tried - a kind of tingling in my feet."

"I expect your trainers are too small, Won-Won," said a voice behind them, and Hermione stalked past, smirking.

"I didn't feel anything," Said Harry, ignoring this interruption. "But I don't care about that now-!"

"What d'you mean, you don't care ... don't you want to learn to Apparate?" Said Ron incredulously.

"I'm not fussed, really. I prefer flying," said Harry, glancing over his shoulder to see where Malfoy was, and speeding up as they came into the Entrance Hall. "Look, hurry up, will you, there's something I want to do ..."

Perplexed, Ron followed Harry back to Gryffindor Tower at a run. They were temporarily detained by Peeves, who had jammed a door on the fourth floor shut and was refusing to let anyone pass until they set fire to their own pants, but Harry and Ron simply turned back and took one of their trusted short cuts. Within five minutes, they were climbing through the portrait hole.

"Are you going to tell me what we're doing, then?" asked Ron, panting slightly.

"Up here," said Harry, and he crossed the common room and led the way through the door to the boys' staircase.

Their dormitory was, as Ham' had hoped, empty. He flung open his trunk and began to rummage in it, while Ron watched impatiently.

"Harry ..."

"Malfoy's using Crabbe and Goyle as lookouts. He was arguing with Crabbe just now. I want to know ... aha."

He had found it, a folded square of apparently blank parchment, which he now smoothed out and tapped it with the tip of his wand.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good ... or Malfoy is."

At once, the Marauder's Map appeared on the parchment's surface. Here was a detailed plan of every one of the castle's floors and, moving around it, the tiny, labeled black dots that signified each of the castle's occupants.

"Help me find Malfoy," said Harry urgently.

He laid the map upon his bed and he and Ron leaned over it, searching.

"There!" said Ron, after a minute or so. "He's in the Slytherin common room, look ... with Juliunna and Zabini and Crabbe and Goyle ..."

Harry looked down at the map, disappointed, but rallied almost at once.

'Well, I'm keeping an eye on him from now on,' he said firmly. "And the moment I see him lurking somewhere with Crabbe and Goyle keeping watch outside, it'll be on with the old Invisibility Cloak and off to find out what he's-!"

He broke off as Neville entered the dormitory, bringing with him a strong smell of singed material, and began rummaging in his trunk for a fresh pair of pants.

Despite his determination to catch Malfoy out, Harry had no luck at all over the next couple of weeks. Although he consulted the map as often as he could, sometimes making unnecessary visits to the bathroom between lessons to search it, he did not once see Malfoy anywhere suspicious. Admittedly, he spotted Crabbe and Goyle moving around the castle on their own more often than usual, sometimes remaining stationary in deserted corridors, but at these times Malfoy was not only nowhere near them, but impossible to locate on the map at all. This was most mysterious. Harry toyed with the possibility that Malfoy was actually leaving the school grounds, but could not see how he could be doing it, given the very high level of security now operating within the castle. He could only suppose that he was missing Malfoy amongst the hundreds of tiny black dots upon the map. As for the fact that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle appeared to be going their different ways when they were usually inseparable, these things happened as people got older.

Ron and Hermione, Harry reflected sadly, were living proof.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

**Normal Pov**

"So, all in all, not one of Ron's better birthdays?" said Fred.

It was evening; the hospital wing was quiet, the windows curtained, the lamps lit. Ron's was the only occupied bed. Harry, Hermione, Juliunna, and Ginny were sitting around him; they had spent all day waiting outside the double doors, trying to see inside whenever somebody went in or out. Madam Pomfrey had only let them enter at eight o'clock. Fred and George had arrived at ten past.

"This isn't how we imagined handing over our present," said George grimly, putting down a large wrapped gift on Ron's bedside cabinet and sitting beside Ginny.

"Yeah, when we pictured the scene, he was conscious," said Fred.

"There we were in Hogsmeade, waiting to surprise him —" said George.

"You were in Hogsmeade?" Juliunna asked, looking up.

"We were thinking of buying Zonko's," said Fred gloomily. "A Hogsmeade branch, you know, but a fat lot of good it'll do us if you lot aren't allowed out at weekends to buy our stuff anymore ... But never mind that now."

He drew up a chair beside Harry and looked at Ron's pale face.

"How exactly did it happen, Harry?"

Harry retold the story he had already recounted, it felt like a hundred times to Dumbledore, to McGonagall, to Madam Pomfrey, to Hermione, to Juliunna, and to Ginny.

". . . and then I got the bezoar down his throat and his breathing eased up a bit, Slughorn ran for help, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey turned up, and they brought Ron up here. They reckon he'll be all right. Madam Pomfrey says he'll have to stay here a week or so ... keep taking essence of rue . . ."

"Blimey, it was lucky you thought of a bezoar," said George in a low voice.

"Lucky there was one in the room," said Harry, who kept turning cold at the thought of what would have happened if he had not been able to lay hands on the little stone.

"Your so talented." Juliunna said, wrapping her arms around Harry's shoulder. She sniffed sadly. "Thank you for saving my paternal brother." She said. Harry patted her back. "It was nothing."

"It was not nothing." Ginny said, sitting deeper into her chair. "Thank you for saving my brother. If it wasn't for you, Ron would be dead." She sighed.

Hermione gave an almost inaudible sniff. She had been exceptionally quiet all day. Having hurtled, white-faced, up to Harry outside the hospital wing and demanded to know what had happened., she had taken almost no part in Harry and Ginny's obsessive discussion about how Ron had been poisoned, but merely stood beside them, clench-jawed and frightened-looking, until at last they had been allowed in to see him.

"Do Mum and Dad know?" Fred asked Ginny. "They've already seen him, they arrived an hour ago — they're in Dumbledore's office now, but they'll be back soon. . . ."

There was a pause while they all watched Ron mumble a little in his sleep.

"So the poison was in the drink?" said Fred quietly.

"Yes," said Harry at once; he could think of nothing else and was glad for the opportunity to start discussing it again. "Slughorn poured it out —"

"Would he have been able to slip something into Ron's glass without you seeing?"

"Probably," said Harry, "But why would Slughorn want to poison Ron?"

"No idea," said Fred, frowning. "You don't think he could have mixed up the glasses by mistake? Meaning to get you?"

"Why would Slughorn want to poison Harry?" Juliunna asked, lifting her head from Harry's shoulders. "I dunno," said Fred, "but there must be loads of people who'd like to poison Harry, mustn't there? 'The Chosen One' and all that?"

"So you think Slughorn's a Death Eater?" said Ginny. :,

"Anything's possible," said Fred darkly. "He could be under the Imperius Curse," said George. "Or he could be innocent," said Ginny. "The poison could have been in the bottle, in which case it was probably meant for Slughorn himself."

"Who'd want to kill Slughorn?" Juliunna sniffed.

"Dumbledore reckons Voldemort wanted Slughorn on his side," said Harry. "Slughorn was in hiding for a year before he came to Hogwarts. And . . ." He thought of the memory Dumbledore had not yet been able to extract from Slughorn. "And maybe Voldemort wants him out of the way, maybe he thinks he could be valuable to Dumbledore."

"But you said Slughorn had been planning to give the bottle to Dumbledore for Christmas," Ginny reminded him. "So the poisoner could just as easily have been after Dumbledore."

"Then the poisoner didn't know Slughorn very well," said Hermione, speaking for the first time in hours and sounding as though she had a bad head cold. "Anyone who knew Slughorn would have I known there was a good chance he'd keep something that tasty for himself."

"Er-my-nee," croaked Ron unexpectedly from between them

They all fell silent, watching him anxiously, but after muttering incomprehensibly for a moment he merely started snoring.

The dormitory doors flew open, making them all jump: Hagrid came striding toward them, his hair rain-flecked, his bearskin coat flapping behind him, a crossbow in his hand, leaving a trail of muddy dolphin-sized footprints all over the floor.

"Bin in the forest all day!" he panted. "Aragog's worse, I bin readin' to him — didn' get up ter dinner till jus' now an' then Professor Sprout told me abou' Ron! How is he?"

"Not bad," said Harry. "They say he'll be okay."

"No more than six visitors at a time!" said Madam Pomfrey, hurrying out of her office.

"Hagrid makes six," Juliunna said, crossing her arms as she pointed it out.

"Oh . . . yes. .." said Madam Pomfrey, who seemed to have been counting Hagrid as several people due to his vastness. To cover her confusion, she hurried off to clear up his muddy foot prints with her wand.

"I don' believe this," said Hagrid hoarsely, shaking his great shaggy head as he stared down at Ron. "Jus' don' believe it... Look at him lyin' there. . . . Who'd want ter hurt him, eh?"

"That's just what we were discussing," said Harry. "We don't know."

"Someone couldn't' have a grudge against the Gryffindor Quidditch team, could they?" said Hagrid anxiously. "Firs' Katie, now Ron . . ."

"I cant see anyone trying to bump off a Quidditch team," Juliunna said.

Wood might've done the Slytherins if he could've got away with it," said Fred fairly.

Well, I don't think it's Quidditch, but I think there's a connection between the attacks," said Hermione quietly

"How d'you work that out?" asked Fred.

"Well, for one thing, they both ought to have been fatal and weren't, although that was pure luck. And for another, neither the poison nor the necklace seems to have reached the person who was supposed to be killed. Of course," she added broodingly, "that makes the person behind this even more dangerous in a way, because they don't seem to care how many people they finish off in case they actually reach their victim."

Before anybody could respond to this ominous pronouncement, dormitory doors opened again and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley hurried up the ward. They had done no more than satisfy themselves that Ron would make a full recovery on their last visit to the ward; now Mrs. Weasley seized hold of Harry and hugged him very tightly. "Dumbledore's told us how you saved him with the bezoar," she sobbed. "Oh, Harry, what can we say? You saved Ginny . . . you saved Arthur , . . now you've saved Ron."

"Don't be ... I didn't. . ." muttered Harry awkwardly.

"Half our family does seem to owe you their lives, now I stop and think about it," Mr. Weasley said in a constricted voice. "Well, all I can say is that it was a lucky day for the Weasleys when Ron decided to sit in your compartment on the Hogwarts Express, Harry."

Harry could not think of any reply to this and was almost going to walk away when Madam Pomfrey reminded them that there were only supposed to be six visitors around Ron's bed; he, Juliunna, Hagrid, and Hermione decided to go in the hall, leaving Ron with his family.

"It's terrible," growled Hagrid into his beard, as the four of them walked back along the corridor to the marble staircase. "This new security, an kids are still getting' hurt. . . . Dumbledore's worried sick. . . . He don say much, but I can tell. ."

"Hasn't he got any ideas, Hagrid?" Juliunna said desperately.

"I spect he's got hundreds of ideas, brain like his," said Hagrid. "But he doesn't' know who sent that necklace nor put poison in that wine, or they'd bin caught, wouldn they? Wha' worries me," said Hagrid, lowering his voice and glancing over his shoulder (Harry, for good measure, checked the ceiling for Peeves), "is how long Hogwarts can stay open if kids are bein' attacked. Chamber o' Secrets all over again, isn' it? There'll be panic, more parents takin their kids outta school, an nex' thing yeh know the board o' governors ..."

Hagrid stopped talking as the ghost of a long-haired woman drifted serenely past, then resumed in a hoarse whisper, ". . . the board o' governors'll be talkin about shutting' us up fer good."

"Surely not?" said Hermione, looking worried.

"Gotta see it from their point o' view," said Hagrid heavily. "I mean, it's always bin a bit of a risk sending a kid ter Hogwarts, hasn' it? Yer expect accidents, don' yeh, with hundreds of underage wizards all locked up tergether, but attempted murder, tha's tliff'rent. 'S'no wonder Dumbledore's angry with Sn —"

Hagrid stopped in his tracks, a familiar, guilty expression on what was visible of his face above his tangled black beard.

"What?" said Harry quickly. "Dumbledore's angry with Snape?"

"I never said tha'," said Hagrid, though his look of panic could not have been a bigger giveaway. "Look at the time, it's gettin' on fer midnight, I need ter —"

"Hagrid, why is Dumbledore angry with Snape?" Harry asked loudly. Juliunna's eyes widened.

_**"Shhhh!"**_ said Hagrid, looking both nervous and angry. "Don' shout stuff like that, Harry, d'yeh wan' me ter lose me job? Mind, I don' suppose yeh'd care, would yeh, not now yeh've given up Care of Mag—"

"Don't try and make me feel guilty, it wont work!" said Harry forcefully. "What's Snape done?"

"I dunno, Harry, I shouldn'ta heard it at all! I — well, I was comin' outta the forest the other evenin' an' I overheard 'em talking— well, arguin'. Didn't like ter draw attention to meself, so I sorta sulked an tried not ter listen, but it was a — well, a heated discussion an' it wasn' easy ter block it out."

"Well?" Harry urged him, as Hagrid shuffled his enormous feet uneasily.

"Well — I jus' heard Snape sayin' Dumbledore took too much fer granted an maybe he — Snape — didn' wan' ter do it any more —"

"Do what?"

"I dunno, Harry, it sounded like Snape was feelin' a bit overworked, tha's all — anyway, Dumbledore told him flat out he'd agreed ter do it an' that was all there was to it. Pretty firm with him. An' then he said summat abou' Snape makin' investigations in his House, in Slytherin. Well, there's nothin' strange abou' that!" Hagrid added hastily, as Harry and Hermione exchanged looks full of meaning. Juliunna looked straight ahead at the wall, her face set with realization. "All the Heads o' Houses were asked ter look inter that necklace business —"

"Yeah, but Dumbledore's not having rows with the rest of them, is he?" said Harry.

"Look," Hagrid twisted his crossbow uncomfortably in his hands; there was a loud splintering sound and it snapped in two. "I know what yeh're like abou' Snape, Harry, an' I don' want yeh ter go readin' more inter this than there is."

"Look out," said Hermione tersely.

They turned just in time to see the shadow of Argus Filch looming over the wall behind them before the man himself turned the corner, hunchbacked, his jowls aquiver.

"Oho!" he wheezed. "Out of bed so late, this'll mean detention!"

"No it won', Filch," said Hagrid shortly. "They're with me, aren' they?"

"And what difference does that make?" asked Filch obnoxiously.

"I'm a ruddy teacher, aren' I, yeh sneakin' Squib!" said Hagrid, firing up at once.

There was a nasty hissing noise as Filch swelled with fury; Mrs. Norris had arrived, unseen, and was twisting herself sinuously around Filch's skinny ankles.

"Get goin," said Hagrid out of the corner of his mouth.

Harry did not need telling twice; he and Hermione both hurried off, Harry grabbing Juliunna by the shoulder, for she was standing still, in deep thought.; Hagrid's and Filch's raised voices echoed behind them as they ran.

"Juliunna." Harry started when they got to the Slytherin Dungeons.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"I trust that you'll be making your own investigation into a certain Slytherin?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She nodded once.

"Of course. Well, goodnight to the both of you." She said. She hugged Hermione and wrapped her arms around Harry's shoulders.

"That was some real quick thinking Potter." She whispered in his ear. He nodded, his chin bumping her shoulder.

"Hey!"

The three of them turned to look. Standing at the bottom of the stairs was Draco, still in his school things. He was sneering up at them.

"Oh, hey Draco. Bye Hermione. And stop crying, he'll be okay." Juliunna said, letting go of Harry. "See you Potter." She waved, stepping down the stairs quickly. Draco threw Harry a loathing and suspicious look, placed a hand on the small of Juliunna's back, and then lead her out of their view, deep into the common room.

Hermione shook her head with deep, deep disappointment.

…

The news that Ron had been poisoned spread quickly next day, but it did not cause the sensation that Katie's attack had done. People seemed to think that it might have been an accident, given that he had been in the Potions master's room at the time, and that as he had been given an antidote immediately there was no real harm done. In fact, the Gryffindors were generally much more interested in the upcoming Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, for many of them wanted to see Zacharias Smith, who played Chaser on the Hufflepuff team, punished soundly for his commentary during the opening match against Slytherin team last time.

Harry, however, had never been less interested in Quidditch; he was rapidly becoming obsessed with Draco Malfoy. Still checking the Marauder's Map whenever he got a chance, he sometimes made detours to wherever Malfoy happened to be, but had not yet detected him doing anything out of the ordinary. And still there were those inexplicable times when Malfoy simply vanished from the map. . . .

But Harry did not get a lot of time to consider the problem, what with Quidditch practice, homework, and the fact that he was now being dogged wherever he went by Cormac McLaggen and Lavender Brown.

He could not decide which of them was more annoying. McLaggen kept up a constant stream of hints that he would make a better permanent Keeper for the team than Ron, and that now that Harry was seeing him play regularly he would surely come around to this way of thinking too; he was also keen to criticize the other players and provide Harry with detailed training schemes, so that more than once Harry was forced to remind him who was Captain.

Meanwhile, Lavender kept sidling up to Harry to discuss Ron, which Harry found almost more wearing than McLaggen's Quidditch lectures. At first, Lavender had been very annoyed that nobody had thought to tell her that Ron was in the hospital wing — "I mean, I am his girlfriend!" — but unfortunately she had now decided to forgive Harry this lapse of memory and was keen to have lots of in-depth chats with him about Ron's feelings, a most uncomfortable experience that Harry would have happily forgone.

"Look, why don't you talk to Ron about all this?" Harry asked, after a particularly long interrogation from Lavender that took in everything from precisely what Ron had said about her new drew robes to whether or not Harry thought that Ron considered his relationship with Lavender to be "serious."

"Well, I would, but he's always asleep when I go and see him!" said Lavender fretfully.

"Is he?" said Harry, surprised, for he had found Ron perfectly alert every time he had been up to the hospital wing, both highly interested in the news of Dumbledore and Snape's row and keen m abuse McLaggen as much as possible.

"Is Hermione Granger still visiting him?" Lavender demanded suddenly.

"Yeah, I think so. Well, they're friends, aren't they?" said Harry uncomfortably.

"Friends, don't make me laugh," said Lavender scornfully. "She didn't talk to him for weeks after he started going out with me! But I suppose she wants to make up with him now he's all interesting. ..."

"Would you call getting poisoned being interesting?" asked Harry. "Anyway — sorry, got to go — there's McLaggen coming for a talk about Quidditch," said Harry hurriedly, and he dashed sideways through a door pretending to be solid wall and sprinted down the shortcut that would take him off to Potions where, thankfully, neither Lavender nor McLaggen could follow him.

On the morning of the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, Harry dropped in on the hospital wing before heading down to the pitch. Ron was very agitated; Madam Pomfrey would not let him go down to watch the match, feeling it would overexcite him.

"So how's McLaggen shaping up?" he asked Harry nervously, apparently forgetting that he had already asked the same question twice.

"I've told you," said Harry patiently, "he could be world-class and I wouldn't want to keep him. He keeps trying to tell everyone what to do, he thinks he could play every position better than the rest of us. I can't wait to be shot of him. And speaking of getting shot of people," Harry added, getting to his feet and picking up his Firebolt, "Will you stop pretending to be asleep when Lavender comes to see you? She's driving me mad as well."

"Oh," said Ron, looking sheepish. "Yeah. All right."

"If you don't want to go out with her anymore, just tell her," said Harry.

"Yeah . . . well. . . it's not that easy, is it?" said Ron. He paused. "Hermione going to look in before the match?" he added casually.

"No, she's already gone down to the pitch with Ginny."

"Oh," said Ron, looking rather glum. "Right. Well, good luck. Hope you hammer McLag — I mean, Smith."

"I'll try," said Harry, shouldering his broom. "See you after the match."

He hurried down through the deserted corridors; the whole school was outside, either already seated in the stadium or heading down toward it. He was looking out of the windows he passed, trying to gauge how much wind they were facing, when a noise ahead made him glance up and he saw Malfoy walking toward him, accompanied by two girls, both of whom looked sulky and resentful.

Malfoy stopped short at the sight of Harry, then gave a short, humorless laugh and continued walking.

"Where're you going?" Harry demanded.

"Yeah, I'm really going to tell you, because it's your business, Potter," sneered Malfoy.

"Does Juliunna know about this?" Harry asked him, narrowing his eyes. Draco's lips twitched into a smirk that threatened to form.

"That's none of your business Potter. You'd better hurry up, they'll be waiting for 'the Chosen Captain' — 'the Boy Who Scored' — whatever they call you these days." Draco said.

One of the girls gave an unwilling giggle. Harry stared at her. She blushed. Malfoy pushed past Harry and she and her friend followed at a trot, turning the corner and vanishing from view.

…

"Draco!" Juliunna said excitedly. Draco froze. The two friends on either side of him gazed at her in horror.

"Oh, hey sweetie. I thought you said you were going to be down at the match-!"

"I changed my mind. You want to hang out?" She smiled, leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek.

"No!" He said to quickly, and the girls turned to him, raising a grudging eyebrow. Juliunna frowned.

"I mean, not right now. I'm working." Draco said to her.

"Hi." Juliunna said, holding her hand out to the girl on the right. Neither of them looked happy. The girl looked horrified. Draco elbowed her.

"She said hi." Draco grumbled to her.

The girl didn't speak, but shook Juliunna's hand with a sullen smile. "So, when you say working-!"

"When I say working, I mean that as a good thing." Draco said. He leaned forward and grabbed her hand. "I'll meet you in the common room at four."  
"Okay." She said. Grudgingly torn between wanting to see what Draco was up to, and wanting him to know she trusted him, she walked away. "Where are you going?" He asked her when she was about to make a right turn.

"I think I'll just sit in the Gryffindor Common Room." She said with a small smile.

"Goodbye!" She waved happily.

"Goodbye!" He smiled. When she rounded the corner, he dropped his smile.

"Alright, you go right, and I'll go left." He said to the girls on either side of him. Together, they rounded the corner and walked off to the room where his precise object lay, needing to be mended.

…

Harry and Ron left the hospital wing first thing on Monday morning, restored to full health by the ministrations of Madam Pomfrey and now able to enjoy the benefits of having been knocked out and poisoned, the best of which was that Hermione and Juliunna were friends with Ron again. Hermione even escorted them down to breakfast, bringing with her the news that Ginny had argued with Dean. The drowsing creature in Harry's chest suddenly raised its head, sniffing the air hopefully.

"What did they row about?" he asked, trying to sound casual as they turned onto a seventh-floor corridor that was deserted but for a very small girl who had been examining a tapestry of trolls in tutus. She looked terrified at the sight of the approaching sixth years and dropped the heavy brass scales she was carrying.

"It's all right!" said Hermione kindly, hurrying forward to help her. "Here ..."

She tapped the broken scales with her wand and said, "Repairo." The girl did not say thank you, but remained rooted to the spot as they passed and watched them out of sight; Ron glanced back at her.

"I swear they're getting smaller," he said.

"Never mind her," said Harry, a little impatiently. "What did Ginny and Dean row about, Hermione?"

"Oh, Dean was laughing about McLaggen hitting that Bludger at you," said Hermione.

"It must've looked funny," said Ron reasonably. "It didn't look funny at all!" said Hermione hotly. "It looked terrible and if Coote and Peakes hadn't caught Harry he could have been very badly hurt!"

"Yeah, well, there was no need for Ginny and Dean to split up over it," said Harry, still trying to sound casual. "Or are they still together?"

"Yes, they are — but why are you so interested?" asked Hermione, giving Harry a sharp look.

"I just don't want my Quidditch team messed up again!" he said hastily, but Hermione continued to look suspicious, and he was most relieved when a voice on called, "Hey guys!" They heard on the second floor. Juliunna and Luna Lovegood were talking together, but smiled at the Golden Trio as they neared.

"Hey Juliunna, hey Luna."

"Harry! I went to the hospital wing to find you," said Luna, rummaging in her bag. "But they said you'd left..."

She thrust what appeared to be a green onion, a large spotted toadstool, and a considerable amount of what looked like cat litter into Ron's hands, finally pulling out a rather grubby scroll of parchment that she handed to Harry.

". . . I've been told to give you this."

It was a small roll of parchment, which Harry recognized at once as another invitation to a lesson with Dumbledore.

"Tonight," he told Ron, Juliunna and Hermione, once he had unrolled it.

"Nice commentary last match!" said Ron to Luna as she took back the green onion, the toadstool, and the cat litter. Luna smiled vaguely.

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?" she said. "Everyone says I was dreadful."

"No, I'm serious!" said Ron earnestly. "I can't remember enjoying commentary more! What is this, by the way?" he added, holding the onion like object up to eye level.

"Oh, it's a Gurdyroot," she said, stuffing the cat litter and the toadstool back into her bag. "You can keep it if you like, I've got a few of them. They're really excellent for warding off Gulping Plimpies. Goodbye Juliunna, it was really nice to talk to you." And she walked away, leaving Ron chortling, still clutching the Gurdyroot.

"You know, she's grown on me, Luna," he said, as they set off again for the Great Hall. "I know she's insane, but it's in a good —" He stopped talking very suddenly. Lavender Brown was standing at the foot of the marble staircase looking thunderous. "Hi," said Ron nervously.

"C'mon," Harry muttered to Hermione and Juliunna, and they sped past, though not before they had heard Lavender say, "Why didn't you tell me you were getting out today? And why was she with you?"

"Anyway Harry, I heard about McLaggen and you getting your skull cracked open. I'm happy your not dead." Juliunna said at the breakfast Gryffindor Table. Harry chuckled.

"Thanks. I can't wait to get rid of him. I'm really happy Ron's out now." Harry said, helping himself to a waffle.

"Anything new?" She asked him.

"I had Dobby and Kreacher, their both House elves…" Harry drifted off. Juliunna raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?" Hermione was looking at him curiously too. Harry realized that if he didn't tell her now, Kreacher would realize that Juliunna was Draco's girlfriend, and tell her about how Harry ordered Draco to be tailed by two House elves. He hadn't thought of that. But if he told Juliunna, could he be sure that she wouldn't tell Draco?

"You know how Draco's taking orders from Voldemort?" He asked.

"Of course." Juliunna nodded, taking a plate of carrots. Hermione sighed.

"Well, I took a step further in trying to see what he's up to." Harry said, trying to block Hermione out of the conversation. Juliunna nodded, understanding what he wasn't going to say out loud.

"Okay. I won't tell." She added with a smirk.

…

Ron looked both sulky and annoyed when he appeared at breakfast half an hour later, and though he sat with Lavender, Harry did not see them exchange a word all the time they were together. Hermione was acting as though she was quite oblivious to all of this, but once or twice Harry saw an inexplicable smirk cross her face. All that day she seemed to be in a particularly good mood, and that evening in the common room she even consented to look over (in other words, finish writing) Harry's Herbology essay, something she had been resolutely refusing to do up to this point, because she had known that Harry would then let Ron copy his work.

…

Harry wracked his brains over the next week as to how he was to persuade Slughorn to hand over the true memory, but nothing in the nature of a brain wave occurred and he was reduced to doing what he did increasingly these days when at a loss: poring over his Potions book, hoping that the Prince would have scribbled something useful in a margin, as he had done so many times before.

"You won't find anything in there," said Hermione firmly, late on Sunday evening.

"Don't start, Hermione," said Harry. "If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron wouldn't be sitting here now."

"He would if you'd just listened to Snape in our first year," said Hermione dismissively. Juliunna chuckled next to her and continued to write the essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Harry ignored her. He had just found an incantation "Sectumsempra!" scrawled in a margin above the intriguing words "For enemies," and was itching to try it out, but thought it best not to in front of Hermione. Instead, he surreptitiously folded down the corner of the page. They were sitting beside the fire in the common room; the only other people awake were fellow sixth years. There had been a certain amount of excitement earlier when they had come back from dinner to find a new sign on the notice board that announced the date for their Apparition Test. Those who would be seventeen on or before the first test date, the twenty-first of April, had the option of signing up for additional practice sessions, which would take place (heavily supervised) in Hogsmeade.

Ron had panicked on reading this notice; he had still not managed to Apparate and feared he would not be ready for the test. Hermione and Juliunna, who had achieved Apparition twice, was a little more confident, but Harry, who would not be seventeen for an-other four months, could not take the test whether ready or not.

"At least you can Apparate, though!" said Ron tensely. "You'll have no trouble come July!"

"I've only done it once," Harry reminded him; he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize inside his hoop during their previous lesson.

"Are you worried?" Ron asked Juliunna, whose hand was moving so fast across the paper it was a blur.

"Nope." She said. "It's all a matter of confidence and determination. Just like your Quidditch Skills. If you had more of both you'd do much better." She said. Harry looked up, expecting to see Ron scowl angrily, but Ron just nodded, in deep thought.

Having wasted a lot of time worrying aloud about Apparition, Ron was now struggling to finish a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry and Hermione had already completed. Harry fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle dementors, but he did not care: Slughorn's memory was the most important thing to him now.

"I'm telling you, the stupid Prince isn't going to be able to help you with this, Harry!" said Hermione, more loudly. "There's only one way to force someone to do what you want, and that's the Imperius Curse, which is illegal —"

"Yeah, I know that, thanks," said Harry, not looking up from the book. "That's why I'm looking for something different. Dumbledore says Veritaserum won't do it, but there might be something else, a potion or a spell. . . ."

"You're going about it the wrong way," said Hermione. "Only you can get the memory, Dumbledore says. That must mean you can persuade Slughorn where other people can't. It's not a question of slipping him a potion, anyone could do that —"

"How do you spell 'belligerent'?" said Ron, shaking his quill very hard while staring at his parchment. "It can't be B — U — M —"

"No, it isn't," said Hermione, pulling Ron's essay toward her. "And 'augury' doesn't begin O — R — G either. What kind of quill are you using?"

"It's one of Fred and George's Spell-Check ones, but I think the charm must be wearing off."

"Yes, it must," said Hermione, pointing at the title of his essay, "because we were asked how we'd deal with dementors, not 'Dug-bogs', and I don't remember you changing your name to 'Roonil Wazlib' either." She said, and Juliunna smirked.

"Ah no!" said Ron, staring horror-struck at the parchment. "Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again!"

"It's okay, we can fix it," said Hermione, pulling the essay toward her and taking out her wand.

"I love you, Hermione," said Ron, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily. Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, "Don't let Lavender hear you saying that."

"1 won't," said Ron into his hands. "Or maybe I will, then she'll ditch me."

"Why don't you ditch her if you want to finish it?" asked Harry.

"You haven't ever chucked anyone, have you?" said Ron. "You and Cho just —"

"Sort of fell apart, yeah," said Harry.

"Wish that would happen with me and Lavender," said Ron gloomily, watching Hermione silently tapping each of his misspelled words with the end of her wand, so that they corrected themselves on the page. "But the more I hint I want to finish it, the tighter she holds on. It's like going out with the giant squid."

"Harry can I see your essay?" Juliunna said, and he passed her it. Within a minute, she was laughing.

"Yes, Harry, I totally agree with you, but your going about this the wrong way. Arguing with Snape is impressive, but you have to give him a reason not to fail you immediately."  
"How?" Harry asked.

"You have to give him an impressive, worded reason on why you disagree. Give him a real life experience where your way worked better then his." She said, passing him back the essay.

"But that's just so much more work, and he might even say no anyway." Harry sighed. "Unless… You might want to-!"

She laughed and turned back to her book. "No."

"Fine." He sighed.

"There," said Hermione, some twenty minutes later, handing back Ron's essay.

"Thanks a million," said Ron. "Can I borrow your quill for the conclusion?" Harry, who had found nothing useful in the Half-Blood Prince's notes so far, looked around; the four of them were now the only ones left in the common room, Seamus having just gone up to bed cursing Snape and his essay. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and Ron scratching out one last paragraph on dementors using Hermione's quill. Harry had just closed the Half-Blood Prince's book, yawning, when —

**Crack! **

Hermione let out a little shriek, Juliunna dropped her book, Ron spilled ink all over his freshly completed essay, and Harry said, "Kreacher!"

The house-elf bowed low and addressed his own gnarled toes. "Master said he wanted regular reports on what the Malfoy boy is doing, so Kreacher has come to give-!"

**Crack!**

Dobby appeared alongside Kreacher, his tea-cozy hat askew. "Dobby has been helping too, Harry Potter!" he squeaked, casting Kreacher a resentful look. "And Kreacher ought to tell Dobby when he is coming to see Harry Potter so they can make their reports together!"

"What is this?" asked Hermione, still looking shocked by these sudden appearances. "What's going on, Harry?" Harry hesitated before answering, because he had not told Hermione about setting Kreacher and Dobby to tail Malfoy; house-elves were always such a touchy subject with her.

"Well. . . they've been following Malfoy for me," he said.

"Night and day," croaked Kreacher.

"Dobby has not slept for a week, Harry Potter!" said Dobby proudly, swaying where he stood. Hermione looked indignant.

"You haven't slept, Dobby? But surely, Harry, you didn't tell him not to —"

"No, of course I didn't," said Harry quickly. "Dobby, you can sleep, all right? But has either of you found out anything?" he hastened to ask, before Hermione could intervene again.

"Master Malfoy moves with a nobility that befits his pure blood," croaked Kreacher at once. "His features recall the fine bones of my mistress and his manners are those of—"

"Draco Malfoy is a bad boy!" squeaked Dobby angrily. "A bad boy who — who —" He shuddered from the tassel of his tea cozy to the toes of his socks and then ran at the fire, as though about to dive into it. Harry, to whom this was not entirely unexpected, caught him around the middle and held him fast. For a few seconds Dobby struggled, then went limp. Juliunna stared at Dobby and Kreacher, her features smoothing into a cool lip pursing.

"Thank you, Harry Potter," Dobby panted. "Dobby still finds it difficult to speak ill of his old masters." Harry released him; Dobby straightened his tea cozy and said defiantly to Kreacher, "But Kreacher should know that Draco Malfoy is not a good master to a house-elf!"

"Yeah, we don't need to hear about you being in love with Malfoy," Harry told Kreacher. "Let's fast forward to where he's actually been going."

Kreacher bowed again, looking furious, and then said, "Master Malfoy eats in the Great Hall, he sleeps in a dormitory in the dungeons, he attends his classes in a variety of—"

"Dobby, you tell me," said Harry, cutting across Kreacher. "Has he been going anywhere he shouldn't have?"

"Harry Potter, sir," squeaked Dobby, his great orb like eyes shining in the firelight, "the Malfoy boy is breaking no rules that Dobby can discover, but he is still keen to avoid detection. He has been making regular visits to the seventh floor with a variety of other students, who keep watch for him while he enters —"

"The Room of Requirement!" said Harry, smacking himself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion-Making. Hermione, Juliunna, and Ron stared at him. "That's where he's been sneaking off to! That's where he's going… whatever he's doing! And I bet that's why he's been disappearing off the map — come to think of it, I've never seen the Room of Requirement on there!"

"Maybe the Marauders never knew the room was there," said Ron.

"I think it'll be part of the magic of the room," Juliunna said. "If you need it to be unplotable, it will be."

"Dobby, have you managed to get in to have a look at what Malfoy's doing?" said Harry eagerly.

"No, Harry Potter, that is impossible," said Dobby.

"No, it's not," said Harry at once. "Malfoy got into our headquarters there last year, so I'll be able to get in and spy on him, no problem."

"But I don't think you will, Harry," said Hermione slowly. "Malfoy already knew exactly how we were using the room, didn't he, because that stupid Marietta had blabbed. He needed the room to become the headquarters of the D.A., so it did. But you don't know what the room becomes when Malfoy goes in there, so you don't know what to ask it to transform into."

"There'll be a way around that," said Harry dismissively. "You've done brilliantly, Dobby."

"Kreachers done well too," said Hermione kindly; but far from looking grateful, Kreacher averted his huge, bloodshot eyes and croaked at the ceiling, "The Mudblood is speaking to Kreacher, Kreacher will pretend he cannot hear —"

"Get out of it," Harry snapped at him, and Kreacher made one last deep bow and Disapparated. "You'd better go and get some sleep too, Dobby."

"Thank you, Harry Potter, sir!" squeaked Dobby happily, and he too vanished.

"How good is this?" said Harry enthusiastically, turning to Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione the moment the room was elf free again. "We know where Malfoy's going! We've got him cornered now!"

"Yeah, it's great," said Ron glumly, who was attempting to mop up the sodden mass of ink chat had recently been an almost completed essay. Juliunna pulled it toward her and began siphoning the ink off with her wand.

"But what's all this about him going up there with a variety of students'?" said Hermione. "How many people are in on it? You wouldn't think he'd trust lots of them to know what he's doing-!"

"Yeah, that is weird," said Harry, frowning. "I heard him telling Crabbe it wasn't Crabbe's business what he was doing... so what's he telling all these... all these..." Harry's voice tailed away; he was staring at the fire. "God, I've been stupid," he said quietly. "Its obvious, isn't it? There was a great vat of it down in the dungeon. . . . He could've nicked some any time during that lesson. . . ."

"Nicked what?" said Ron.

"Polyjuice Potion. He stole some of the Polyjuice Potion Slughorn showed us in our first Potions lesson… There aren't a whole variety of students standing guard for Malfoy… it's just Crabbe and Goyle as usual. …Yeah, it all fits!" said Harry, jumping up and starting to pace in front of the fire. "They're stupid enough to do what they're told even if he won't tell them what he's up to, but he doesn't want them to be seen lurking around outside the Room of Requirement, so he's got them taking Polyjuice to make them look like other people… Those two girls I saw him with when he missed Quidditch — ha! Crabbe and Goyle!"

"Do you mean to say," said Hermione in a hushed voice, "that that little girl whose scales I repaired — ?"

"Yeah, of course!" said Harry loudly, staring at her. "Of course! Malfoy must've been inside the room at the time, so she — what am I talking about? — he dropped the scales to tell Malfoy not to come out, because there was someone there! And there was that girl who dropped the toad spawn too! We've been walking past him all the time and not realizing it!"

"He's got Crabbe and Goyle transforming into girls?" guffawed Ron. "Blimey… no wonder they don't look too happy these days. I'm surprised they don't tell him to stuff it."

"Well, they wouldn't, would they, if he's shown them his Dark Mark?" Juliunna said, smirking.

"Hmmm... the Dark Mark we don't know exists," said Hermione skeptically, rolling up Ron's dried essay before it could come to any more harm and handing it to him.

"We'll see" said Harry confidently.

"Yes, we will," Hermione said, getting to her feet and stretching. "But, Harry, before you get all excited, I still don't think you'll be able to get into the Room of Requirement without knowing what's there first'. And I don't think you should forget" — she heaved her bag onto her shoulder and gave him a very serious look — "that what you're supposed to be concentrating on is getting that memory from Slughorn. Good night."

Harry watched her go, feeling slightly disgruntled. Once the door to the girls' dormitories had closed behind her he rounded on Ron. "What d'you think?" He asked hurriedly.

"Wish I could Disapparate like a house-elf," Ron said, staring at the spot where Dobby had vanished. "I'd have that Apparition Test in the bag."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

**Normal Pov**

"Late again, Potter," said Snape coldly, as Harry hurried into the candlelit classroom. "Ten points from Gryffindor." Harry scowled at Snape as he flung himself into the seat beside Juliunna and Ron. Half the class were still on their feet, taking out books and organizing their things; he could not be much later than any of them.

"Before we start, I want your dementor essays," said Snape, waving his wand carelessly, so that twenty-five scrolls of parchment soared into the air and landed in a neat pile on his desk. "And I hope for your sakes they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperius Curse. Now, if you will all open your books to page — what is it, Mr. Finnigan?"

"Sir," said Seamus, "I've been wondering, how do you tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost? Because there was something in the paper about an Inferius —"

"No, there wasn't," said Snape in a bored voice.

"But sir, I heard people talking —"

"If you had actually read the article in question, Mr. Finnigan, you would have known that the so-called Inferius was nothing but a smelly sneak thief by the name of Mundungus Fletcher."

"I thought Snape and Mundungus were on the same side," Muttered Harry to Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione. "Shouldn't he be upset Mundungus has been arrest —"

"Well its not like their friends, obviously." Juliunna said, muttering into her hair.

"But Potter seems to have a lot to say on the subject," said Snape, pointing suddenly at the back of the room, his black eyes fixed on Harry. "Let us ask Potter how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost."

The whole class looked around at Harry, who hastily tried to recall what Dumbledore had told him the night that they had gone to visit Slughorn. "Er — well — ghosts are transparent —" he said.

"Oh, very good," interrupted Snape, his lip curling. "Yes, it in easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. _'Ghosts are transparent.'_"

Pansy Parkinson let out a high-pitched giggle. Several other people were smirking. Harry took a deep breath and continued calmly, though his insides were boiling, "Yeah, ghosts are transparent, but Inferi are dead bodies, aren't they? So they'd be solid —"

"A five-year-old could have told us as much," sneered Snape, and Juliunna rolled her eyes. "The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark wizard's spells. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet to do the wizard's bidding. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth, and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us, transparent. "

"Well, what Harry said is the most useful if we're trying to tell them apart!" said Ron. "When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we're going to be having a look to see if its solid, aren't we, we're not going to be asking, 'Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?'" There was a ripple of laughter, instantly quelled by the look Snape gave the class.

"Another ten points from Gryffindor," said Snape. "I would expect nothing more sophisticated from you, Ronald Weasley, the boy so solid he cannot Apparate half an inch across a room."

Ron was very subdued all through the class.

"No!" Juliunna whispered, grabbing Harry's arm as he opened his mouth furiously. "There's no point, you'll just end up in detention again, leave it!"

"Now open your books to page two hundred and thirteen," said Snape, smirking a little, "And read the first two paragraphs on the Cruciatus Curse." He said, making Juliunna smile dreamily at the thought of demonstrating the curse on himself.

When the bell sounded at the end of the lesson, Lavender caught up with Ron and Harry _(Hermione had mysteriously melted out of sight with Juliunna at her hip as Lavender approached)_ and abused Snape hotly for his jibe about Ron's Apparition, but this seemed to merely irritate Ron, and he shook her off by making a detour int into the boys' bathroom with Harry.

"Snape's right, though, isn't he?" said Ron, after staring into a cracked mirror for a minute or two. "I dunno whether it's worth me taking the test. I just can't get the hang of Apparition."

"You might as well do the extra practice sessions in Hogsmeade and see where they get you," said Harry reasonably. "It'll be more interesting than trying to get into a stupid hoop anyway. Then, if you're still not — you know — as good as you'd like to be, you can postpone the test, do it with me over the summer — Myrtle, this is the boys' bathroom!"

The ghost of a girl had risen out of the toilet in a cubicle behind them and was now floating in midair, staring at them through thick, white, round glasses. "Oh," she said glumly. "It's you two."

"Who were you expecting?" said Ron, looking at her in the mirror.

"Nobody," said Myrtle, picking moodily at a spot on her chin. "He said he'd come back and see me, but then you said you'd pop in and visit me too" — she gave Harry a reproachful look — "and I haven't seen you for months and months. I've learned not to expect too much from boys."

"I thought you lived in that girls' bathroom?" said Harry, who had been careful to give the place a wide berth for some years now.

"I do," she said, with a sulky little shrug, "but that doesn't mean I can't visit other places. I came and saw you in your bath once, remember?"

"Vividly," said Harry.

"But I thought he liked me," she said plaintively. "Maybe if you two left, he'd come back again. We had lots in common. I'm sure he felt it."

And she looked hopefully toward the door. "When you say you had lots in common," said Ron, sounding rather amused now, "Do you mean he lives in an S-bend too?"

"No," said Myrtle defiantly, her voice echoing loudly around the old tiled bathroom. "I mean he's sensitive, people bully him too, and he's having girlfriend problems, and he feels lonely and hasn't got anybody to talk to, and he's not afraid to show his feelings and cry!"

"There's been a boy in here crying?" said Harry curiously. "A young boy?"

"Never you mind!" said Myrtle, her small, leaky eyes fixed on Ron, who was now definitely grinning. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, and I'll take his secret to the —"

"— not the grave, surely?" said Ron with a snort. "The sewers, maybe." Myrtle gave a howl of rage and dived back into the toilet, causing water to slop over the sides and onto the floor. Goading Myrtle seemed to have put fresh heart into Ron. "You're right," he said, swinging his schoolbag back over his shoulder, "I'll do the practice sessions in Hogsmeade before I decide about taking the test."

And so the following weekend, Ron joined Juliunna and Hermione and the rest of the sixth years who would turn seventeen in time to take the test in a fortnight. Harry felt rather jealous watching them all get ready to go into the village; he missed making trips there, and it was a particularly fine spring day, one of the first clear skies they had seen in a long time. However, he had decided to use the time to attempt another assault on the Room of Requirement.

"You'd do better," said Hermione, when he confided this plan to Ron, Jules and her in the entrance hall, "to go straight to Slughorn's office and try and get that memory from him."

"I've been trying!" said Harry crossly, which was perfectly true. He had lagged behind after every Potions lesson that week in an attempt to corner Slughorn, but the Potions master always left the dungeon so fast that Harry had not been able to catch him. Twice, Harry had gone to his office and knocked, but received no reply, though on the second occasion he was sure he had heard the quickly stifled sounds of an old gramophone.

"He doesn't want to talk to me, Hermione! He can tell I've been trying to get him on his own again, and he's not going to let it happen!"

"Well, you've just got to keep at it, haven't you?"

The short queue of people waiting to file past Filch, who was doing his usual prodding act with the Secrecy Sensor, moved forward a few steps and Harry did not answer in case he was overheard by the caretaker. He wished Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione luck, then turned and climbed the marble staircase again, determined, whatever Hermione said, to devote an hour or two to the Room of Requirement.

He found Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione in the Great Hall, already halfway through an early lunch.

"I did it — well, kind of!" Ron told Harry enthusiastically when he caught sight of him. "I was supposed to be Apparating to outside Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop and I overshot it a bit, ended up near Scrivenshafts, but at least I moved!"

"Good one," said Harry. "How'd you do, girls?"

"Oh, they were perfect, obviously," Ron said, before either smiling girls could answer. "Perfect deliberation, divination, and desperation or whatever the hell it is — we all went for a quick drink in the Three Broomsticks after and you should've heard Twycross going on about them— I'll be surprised if he doesn't pop the question to one of them soon —"

"And what about you?" asked Hermione, ignoring Ron. "Have you been up at the Room of Requirement all this time?"

"Yep," said Harry. "And guess who I ran into up there? Tonks!"

"Tonks?" repeated Ron and Hermione together, looking surprised. Juliunna nibbled on the end of a carrot silently.

"Yeah, she said she'd come to visit Dumbledore."

"If you ask me," said Ron once Harry had finished describing his conversation with Tonks, "she's cracking up a bit. Losing her nerve after what happened at the Ministry."

"It's a bit odd," said Hermione, who for some reason looked very concerned. "She's supposed to be guarding the school, why she suddenly abandoning her post to come and see Dumbledore when he's not even here?"

"I had a thought," said Harry tentatively. He felt strange about voicing it; this was much more Hermione and Juliunna's territory than his. "You don't think she can have been... you know... in love with Sirius?"

"I knew it!" Juliunna laughed.

Hermione stared at him. "What on earth makes you say that?"

"I dunno," said Harry, shrugging, "but she was nearly crying when I mentioned his name, and her Patronus is a big four-legged thing now. I wondered whether it hadn't become... you know... him." He said, and Juliunna tapped her hand to her own chin.

"But Sirius's cousin is Andromedra, Tonk's mother. Ew, he's like her uncle!" She said, and Hermione choked down her laugh.

"Her being in love with Sirius… It's a thought," said Hermione slowly. "But I still don't know why she'd be bursting into the castle to see Dumbledore, if that's really why she was here."

"Goes back to what I said, doesn't it?" said Ron, who was now shoveling mashed potato into his mouth. "She's gone a bit funny. Lost her nerve. Women," he said wisely to Harry, "they're easily upset."

"And yet," Juliunna said, pushing her fancy rose headband up a little. "I doubt you'd find a woman who sulked for half an hour because Madam Rosmerta didn't laugh at their joke about the hag, the Healer, and the Mimbulus mimbletonia."

Ron scowled.

…

Patches of bright blue sky were beginning to appear over the castle turrets, but these signs of approaching summer did not lift Harry's mood. He had been thwarted, both in his attempts to find out what Malfoy was doing, and in his efforts to start a conversation with Slughorn that might lead, somehow, to Slughorn handing over the memory he had apparently suppressed for decades.

"For the last time, just forget about Malfoy," Hermione told Harry firmly.

They were sitting with Ron and Juliunna in a sunny corner of the courtyard after lunch. Hermione and Ron were both clutching a Ministry of Magic leaflet — Common Apparition Mistakes and How to Avoid Them — for they were taking their tests that very afternoon, but big and large the leaflets had not proved soothing to the nerves. Juliunna was on her back, her head on Ron's lap as she relaxed.

"Shouldn't you be studying too?" Harry asked her.

"Nah. I'm good." She said with a shrug, her eyes still closed. "I've already mastered it." She added with a shrug.

As a girl came around the corner. Ron gave a start and threw Juliunna so hard she hit the nearby bush.

"It isn't Lavender," said Hermione wearily.

"Oh, good," said Ron, relaxing.

"Yeah," Juliunna said, pushing herself to a stand after brushing herself off. "Bloody terrific." She sat down next to Harry and laid her head on Hermione's shoulder.

"Harry Potter?" said the girl. "I was asked to give you this."

"Thanks..."

Harry's heart sank as he took the small scroll of parchment. Once the girl was out of earshot he said, "Dumbledore said we wouldn't be having any more lessons until I got the memory!"

"Maybe he wants to check on how you're doing?" suggested Hermione, as Harry unrolled the parchment; but rather than finding Dumbledore's long, narrow, slanted writing he saw an untidy sprawl, very difficult to read due to the presence of large blotches on the parchment where the ink had run.

_**Dear Harry, Juliunna, Ron and Hermione! **_

_**Aragog died last night. Harry, Juliunna, Ron, you met him and you know how special he was. **_

_**Hermione, I know you'd have liked him. **_

_**It would mean a lot to me if you'd nip down for the burial later this evening. **_

_**I'm planning on doing it round dusk, because that was his favorite time of day. **_

_**I know you're not supposed to be out that late, but you can use the cloak. **_

_**Wouldn't ask, but I can't face it alone. **_

_**Hagrid **_

"Look at this," said Harry, handing the note to Hermione. "Oh, for heaven's sake," she said, scanning it quickly and passing it to Ron, who read it through looking increasingly incredulous. "He's mental" he said furiously. "That thing told its mates to eat Harry and me! Told them to help themselves! And now Hagrid expects us to go down there and cry over its horrible hairy body!"

"Its not just that," said Hermione. "He's asking us to leave the castle at night and he knows security's a million times tighter and how much trouble we'd be in if we were caught."

"We've been down to see him by night before," said Harry.

"Yes, but for something like this?" said Hermione. "We've risked a lot to help Hagrid out, but after all — Aragog's dead. If it were a question of saving him —"

"— I'd want to go even less," said Ron firmly. "You didn't meet him, Hermione. Believe me, being dead will have improved him a lot."

"When did you meet him?" Harry asked Juliunna, who took her head off of Hermione's shoulder to answer him. "Hagrid took me to its web on one of our classes. I had to help him feed." Juliunna whispered. Without further ado, she leaned back on Ron's lap and shut her eyes, looking inches away from deep sleep.

Harry took the note back and stared down at all the inky blotches all over it. Tears had clearly fallen thick and fast upon the parchment. . . .

"Harry, you can't be thinking of going," said Hermione. "It's such a pointless thing to get detention for."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, I know," he said. "I s'pose Hagrid'll have to bury Aragog without us."

"Yes, he will," said Hermione, looking relieved. "Look, Potions will be almost empty this afternoon, with us all off doing our tests. . . . Try and soften Slughorn up a bit then!"

"Fifty-seventh time lucky, you think?" said Harry bitterly.

"Lucky," said Ron suddenly. "Harry, that's it — get lucky!"

"What d'you mean?"

"Use your lucky potion!"

"Ron, that's — that's it!" said Hermione, sounding stunned. "Of course! Why didn't I think of it?"

Harry stared at them both. "Felix Felicis?" he said. "I dunno . . . I was sort of saving it. ..."

"What for?" Juliunna said with a tired laugh.

"What on earth is more important than this memory, Harry?" asked Hermione.

Harry did not answer. The thought of that little golden bottle had hovered on the edges of his imagination for some time; vague and unformulated plans that involved Ginny splitting up with Dean, and Ron somehow being happy to see her with a new boyfriend, had been fermenting in the depths of his brain, unacknowledged except during dreams or the twilight time between sleeping and waking. . . .

"Harry? Are you still with us?" asked Hermione.

"Wha — ? Yeah, of course," he said, pulling himself together. "Well. . . okay. If I can't get Slughorn to talk this afternoon, I'll take some Felix and have another go this evening."

"That's decided, then," said Hermione briskly, getting to her feet and performing a graceful pirouette. "Destination . . . determination . . . deliberation . . ." she murmured.

"Oh, stop that," Ron begged her, "I feel sick enough as it is — quick, hide me!" He said, about to throw Juliunna.

"It isn't Lavender!" said Hermione impatiently, as another couple of girls appeared in the courtyard and Ron relaxed.

"Cool," said Ron, peering over Hermione's shoulder to check. "Blimey, they don't look happy, do they?"

"They're the Montgomery sisters and of course they don't look happy, didn't you hear what happened to their little brother?" said Hermione.

"I'm losing track of what's happening to everyone's relatives, to be honest," said Ron.

"Well, their brother was attacked by a werewolf. The rumor is that their mother refused to help the Death Eaters. Anyway, the boy was only five and he died in St. Mungos, they couldn't save him."

"He died?" repeated Harry, shocked. "But surely werewolves don't kill, they just turn you into one of them?"

"They sometimes kill," said Ron, who looked unusually grave now. "I've heard of it happening when the werewolf gets carried away."

"What was the werewolf's name?" said Harry quickly.

"Well, the rumor is that it was that Fenir Greyback," Juliunna murmured.

"I knew it — the maniac who likes attacking kids, the one Lupin told me about!" said Harry angrily.

Hermione looked at him bleakly.

"Harry, you've got to get that memory," she said. "It's all about stopping Voldemort, isn't it? These dreadful things that are happening are all down to him..."

The bell rang overhead in the castle and both Hermione and Ron jumped to their feet, looking terrified. Juliunna leaned up with a yawn.

"You'll do fine," Harry told them both, as they headed toward the entrance hall to meet the rest of the people taking their Apparition Test. "Good luck."

"And you too!" said Hermione with a significant look, as Harry headed off to the dungeons.

…

Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione returned in the late afternoon.

"Harry!" cried Hermione as she climbed through the portrait hole. "Harry, I passed!"

"Me too." Juliunna squealed as she climbed through.

"Well done!" he said. "And Ron?"

"He — he just failed," whispered Hermione, as Ron came slouching into the room looking most morose. "It was really unlucky, a tiny thing, the examiner just spotted that he'd left half an eyebrow behind. . . How did it go with Slughorn?"

"No joy," said Harry, as Ron joined them. "Bad luck, mate, but you'll pass next time — we can take it together."

"Yeah, I s'pose," said Ron grumpily. "But half an eyebrow – like that matters!"

"I know," Juliunna said soothingly, "It does seem really harsh. ..."

They spent most of their dinner roundly abusing the Apparition examiner, and Ron looked fractionally more cheerful by the time they set off back to the common room, now discussing the continuing problem of Slughorn and the memory.

"So, Harry — you going to use the Felix Felicis or what?" Ron demanded.

"Yeah, I s'pose I'd better," said Harry. "I don't reckon I'll need all of it, not twenty-four hours' worth, it can't take all night... I'll just take a mouthful. Two or three hours should do it."

"It's a great feeling when you take it," said Ron reminiscently. "Like you can't do anything wrong."

"What are you talking about?" said Hermione, laughing. "You've never taken any!"

"Yeah, but I thought I had, didn't I?" said Ron, as though explaining the obvious. "Same difference really ..."

As they had only just seen Slughorn enter the Great Hall and knew that he liked to take time over meals, they lingered for a while in the common room, the plan being that Harry should go to Slughorn s office once the teacher had had time to get back there. When the sun had sunk to the level of the treetops in the Forbid-den Forest, they decided the moment had come, and after checking carefully that Neville, Dean, and Seamus were all in the common room, sneaked up to the boys' dormitory.

Harry took out the rolled-up socks at the bottom of his trunk and extracted the tiny, gleaming bottle.

"Well, here goes," said Harry, and he raised the little bottle and took a carefully measured gulp.

"What does it feel like?" Juliunna whispered in wonder, stroking her favorite liquid diamond necklace.

Harry did not answer for a moment. Then, slowly but surely, an exhilarating sense of infinite opportunity stole through him; he felt as though he could have done anything, anything at all... and getting the memory from Slughorn seemed suddenly not only possible, but positively easy. . . .

He got to his feet, smiling, brimming with confidence.

"Excellent," he said. "Really excellent. Right. . . I'm going down to Hagrid's."

"What?" said Ron and Hermione together, looking aghast.

"No, Harry — you've got to go and see Slughorn, remember?" said Hermione.

"No," said Harry confidently. "I'm going to Hagrid's, I've got a good feeling about going to Hagrid's."

"You've got a good feeling about burying a giant spider?" asked Ron, looking stunned.

"Yeah," said Harry, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag. "I feel like it's the place to be tonight, you know what I mean?"

"No," said Ron and Hermione together, both looking positively alarmed now. Instead of sharing Ron and Hermione's view, Juliunna grinned.

"This is Felix Felicis, I suppose?" said Hermione anxiously, holding up the bottle to the light. "You haven't got another little bottle full of— I don't know —"

"Essence of Insanity?" suggested Ron, as Harry swung his cloak over his shoulders.

Harry laughed, and Ron and Hermione looked even more alarmed.

"Trust me," he said. "I know what I'm doing ... or at least" he strolled confidently to the door— "Felix does."

He pulled the Invisibility Cloak over his head and set off down the stairs, Ron and Hermione hurrying along behind him. At the foot of the stairs, Harry slid through the open door.

"What were you doing up there with her!" shrieked Lavender Brown, staring right through Harry at Ron and Hermione emerging together from the boys' dormitories. Harry heard Ron spluttering behind him as he darted across the room away from them. He stopped at the portrait hole to watch Juliunna walk pass. Then continued down the Portrait hole.

..

Exhausted but delighted with his night's work, Harry told Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione everything that had happened during next morning's Charms lesson (having first cast the Muffliato spell upon those nearest them). They were satisfyingly impressed by the way he had wheedled the memory out of Slughorn and positively awed when he told them about Voldemort's Horcruxes and Dumbledore's promise to take Harry along, should he find another one.

"Wow," said Ron, when Harry had finally finished telling them everything; Ron was waving his wand very vaguely in the direction of the ceiling without paying the slightest bit of attention to what he was doing. "Wow. You're actually going to go with Dumbledore . . . and try and destroy . . . wow."

"Ron, you're making it snow," Juliunna said patiently, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling from which, sure enough, large white flakes had started to fall. Lavender Brown, Harry noticed, glared at Juliunna from a neighboring table through very red eyes, and Juliunna immediately let go of Ron's arm.

"Oh yeah," said Ron, looking down at his shoulders in vague surprise. "Sorry... looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now. ..."

He brushed some of the fake snow off Hermione's shoulder. Lavender burst into tears. Ron looked immensely guilty and turned his back on her.

"We split up," he told Harry out of the corner of his mouth, "Last night. When she saw me and Hermione coming out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously she couldn't see you, and Juliunna waited a few seconds before she walked down, so she thought it had just been the two of us."

"Ah," said Harry. "Well — you don't mind it's over, do you?"

"No," Ron admitted. "It was pretty bad while she was yelling, but at least I didn't have to finish it."

"Coward," said Hermione, though she looked amused. "Well, it was a bad night for romance all around. Ginny and Dean split up too, Harry."

Harry thought there was a rather knowing look in her eye as she told him that, but she could not possibly know that his insides were suddenly dancing the conga. Keeping his face as immobile and his voice as indifferent as he could, he asked, "How come?"

"Oh, something really silly . . . She said he was always trying to help her through the portrait hole, like she couldn't climb in herself . . . but they've been a bit rocky for ages."

Harry glanced over at Dean on the other side of the classroom. He certainly looked unhappy.

"Of course, this puts you in a bit of a dilemma, doesn't it?" Juliunna said.

"What d'you mean?" said Harry quickly.

"The Quidditch team," said Hermione. "If Ginny and Dean aren't speaking . . ."

"Oh — oh yeah," said Harry.

"Flitwick," said Ron in a warning tone. The tiny little Charms master was bobbing his way toward them, and Hermione was the only one who had managed to turn vinegar into wine; her glass flask was full of deep crimson liquid, whereas the contents of Harry's and Ron's were still murky brown.

"Now, now, kid's," squeaked Professor Flitwick reproachfully. "A little less talk, a little more action . . . Let me see you try. . . ."

Together they raised their wands, concentrating with all their might, and pointed them at their flasks. Harry's vinegar turned to ice, Juliunna's to red wine, and Ron's flask exploded.

"Is it okay if mine's red? I prefer it Vodka, but if anything I like sparkling." She said, tapping her wand on the glass again. It went from red to clear, bubbling wine. "Ooh, I also like mixed drinks." She smiled. Her glass was filled with a red, white, and blue substance, each on top of each other.

"Twenty points to Slytherin." He under the table, viewing from there. "Yes, boys ... for homework," said Professor Flitwick, reemerging from under the table and pulling shards of glass from Ron's cup out of the top of his hat, "practice."

They had one of their rare joint free periods after Charms and walked back to the common room together. Ron seemed to be positively lighthearted about the end of his relationship with Lavender, and Hermione seemed cheery too, though when asked what she was grinning about she simply said, "It's a nice day." Neither of them seemed to have noticed that a fierce battle was raging inside Harry's brain:

_**She's Ron's sister. **_

_**But she's ditched Dean! **_

_**She's still Ron's sister. **_

_**I'm his best mate!**_

_**That'll make it worse. **_

_**If I talked to him first — **_

_**He'd hit you.**_

_**What if I don't care?**_

_**He's your best mate!**_

Harry barely noticed that they were climbing through the portrait hole into the sunny common room, and only vaguely registered the small group of seventh years clustered together there, until Hermione cried, "Katie! You're back! Are you okay?"

Harry stared: It was indeed Katie Bell, looking completely healthy and surrounded by her jubilant friends.

"I'm really well!" she said happily. "They let me out of St. Mungos on Monday, I had a couple of days at home with Mum and Dad and then came back here this morning. Leanne was just telling me about McLaggen and the last match, Harry. . . ."

"Yeah," said Harry, "well, now you're back and Ron's fit, we'll have a decent chance of thrashing Ravenclaw, which means we could still be in the running for the Cup. Listen, Katie . . ."

He had to put the question to her at once; his curiosity even drove Ginny temporarily from his brain. He dropped his voice as Katie's friends started gathering up their things; apparently they were late for Transfiguration.

". . . that necklace . . . can you remember who gave it to you now?"

"No," said Katie, shaking her head ruefully. "Everyone's been asking me, but I haven't got a clue. The last thing I remember was walking into the ladies' in the Three Broomsticks."

"You definitely went into the bathroom, then?" said Hermione.

"Well, I know I pushed open the door," said Katie, "so I suppose whoever Imperiused me was standing just behind it. After that, my memory's a blank until about two weeks ago in St. Mungo's. Listen, I'd better go, I wouldn't put it past McGonagall to give me lines even if it is my first day back. ..."

She caught up her bag and books and hurried after her friends, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione to sit down at a window table and ponder what she had told them.

"So it must have been a girl or a woman who gave Katie the necklace," said Hermione, "to be in the ladies' bathroom."

"Or someone who looked like a girl or a woman," said Harry. "Don't forget, there was a cauldron full of Polyjuice Potion at Hogwarts. We know some of it got stolen. . . ."

In his mind's eye, he watched a parade of Crabbe's and Goyle's prance past, all transformed into girls.

"I think I'm going to take another swig of Felix," said Harry, "and have a go at the Room of Requirement again."

"That would be a complete waste of potion," said Hermione flatly, putting down the copy of Spellman's Syllabary she had just taken out of her bag. "Luck can only get you so far, Harry. The situation with Slughorn was different; you always had the ability to persuade him, you just needed to tweak the circumstances a bit. Luck isn't enough to get you through a powerful enchantment, though. Don't go wasting the rest of that potion! You'll need all the luck you can get if Dumbledore takes you along with him ..." She dropped her voice to a whisper.

"Couldn't we make some more?" Ron asked Harry, ignoring Hermione. "It'd be great to have a stock of it. ... Have a look in the book... "

Harry pulled his copy of Advanced Potion-Making out of his back, and looked up Felix Felicis.

"Blimey, its seriously complicated," he said, running an eye down the list of ingredients. "And it takes six months.,. You've got to let it stew. ..."

"Typical," said Ron.

Harry was about to put his book away again when he noticed the corner of a page folded down; turning to it, he saw the Sectumsempra spell, captioned "For Enemies," that he had marked a few weeks previously. He had still not found out what it did, mainly because he did not want to test it around Hermione, but he was considering trying it out on McLaggen next time he came up behind him unawares.

The only person who was not particularly pleased to see Katie Bell back at school was Dean Thomas, because he would no longer be required to fill her place as Chaser. He took the blow stoically enough when Harry told him, merely grunting and shrugging, but Harry had the distinct feeling as he walked away that Dean and Seamus were muttering mutinously behind his back.

The following fortnight saw the best Quidditch practices Harry had known as Captain. His team was so pleased to be rid of McLaggen, so glad to have Katie back at last, that they were flying extremely well.

Ginny did not seem at all upset about the breakup with Dean; on the contrary, she was the life and soul of the team. Her imitations of Ron anxiously bobbing up and down in front of the goal posts as the Quaffle sped toward him, or of Harry bellowing orders at McLaggen before being knocked out cold, kept them all highly amused. Harry, laughing with the others, was glad to have an innocent reason to look at Ginny; he had received several more Bludger injuries during practice because he had not been keeping his eyes on the Snitch.

…

A few days before the match against Ravenclaw, Harry found himself walking down to dinner alone from the common room, Ron having rushed off into a nearby bathroom to throw up yet again, and Hermione having dashed off to see Professor Vector about a mistake she thought she might have made in her last Arithmacy essay. More out of habit than anything, Harry made his usual detour along the seventh-floor corridor, checking the Marauder's Map as he went. For a moment he could not find Malfoy anywhere and assumed he must indeed be inside the Room of Requirement again, but then he saw Malfoy's tiny, labeled dot standing in a boys' bathroom on the floor below, accompanied, not by Crabbe or Goyle, but by Moaning Myrtle.

Harry only stopped staring at this unlikely coupling when he walked right into a suit of armor. The loud crash brought him out of his reverie; hurrying from the scene lest Filch turn up, he dashed down the marble staircase and along the passageway below. Outside the bathroom, he pressed his ear against the door. He could not hear anything. He very quietly pushed the door open.

Draco Malfoy was standing with his back to the door, his hands clutching either side of the sink, his white-blond head bowed.

…

Juliunna opened the door to the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey was bent over Draco, rubbing a kind of cream over his wounds. She walked forward and sat beside him. "Snape sent me." She said to Madame Pomfrey, and cupped Draco's right cheek softly. He turned his head towards her, and she winced.

"Hey." He whispered hoarsely.

"What happened?" She asked him, her eyes jetting towards his bloodstained shirt. It was soaked through.

"Potter." He said hoarsely, no more then a whisper. "Oh, you poor baby. How long is he going to be here?" Juliunna asked, glancing at Draco's exposed wounds.

"He'll have to spend the night."

"What?" Draco groaned. He tried to push himself up, but could barely move. "Sit back down." She murmered, pushing him back down. Madame Pomfrey sighed.

"Miss Riddle, I'm afraid your gonna have to get out, he needs his rest." She said, and Juliunna rose. Draco's hand clamped down on her wrist. "Don't… Don't leave… Me." He whispered, looking like he was about to lose consciousness.

"I'm sorry Draco, but I have to leave. I'll see you soon, okay?" She whispered. She pressed a kiss to Draco's forehead, and he released his grip on her.

"Okay." He whispered hoarsely. "Kick…. Potters arse for me." He whispered. She chuckled.

"Language Mr. Malfoy." Madame Pomfrey warned him. He nodded, and as Juliunna left the room, she clenched her fists together, Draco's eyes following Juliunna all the way out.

…

"I won't say 'I told you so,'" said Hermione, an hour later in the common room.

"Leave it, Hermione," said Ron angrily.

Harry had never made it to dinner; he had no appetite at all. He had just finished telling Ron, Hermione, and Ginny what had happened, not that there seemed to have been much need. The news had traveled very fast: Apparently Moaning Myrtle had taken it upon herself to pop up in every bathroom in the castle to tell the story; Malfoy had already been visited in the hospital wing by Pansy Parkinson, who had lost no time in vilifying Harry far and wide, and Snape had told the staff precisely what had happened. Harry had already been called out of the common room to endure fifteen highly unpleasant minutes in the company of Professor McGonagall, who had told him he was lucky not to have been expelled and that she supported wholeheartedly Snape's punishment of detention every Saturday until the end of term.

"I told you there was something wrong with that Prince person," Hermione said, evidently unable to stop herself. "And I was right, wasn't I?"

"No, I don't think you were," said Harry stubbornly.

He was having a bad enough time without Hermione lecturing him; the looks on the Gryffindor team's faces when he had told them he would not be able to play on Saturday had been the worst punishment of all. He could feel Ginny's eyes on him now but did not meet them; he did not want to see disappointment or anger there. He had just told her that she would be playing Seeker on Saturday and that Dean would be rejoining the team as Chaser in her place. Perhaps, if they won, Ginny and Dean would make up during the post-match euphoria. . . . The thought went through Harry like an icy knife. . . .

"Harry," said Hermione, "how can you still stick up for that book when that spell —"

"Will you stop harping on about the book!" snapped Harry. "The Prince only copied it out! It's not like he was advising anyone to use it! For all we know, he was making a note of something that had been used against him!"

"I don't believe this," said Hermione. "You're actually defending—

"I'm not defending what I did!" said Harry quickly. "I wish I hadn't done it, and not just because I've got about a dozen detentions. You know I wouldn't'ved used a spell like that, not even on Malfoy, but you can't blame the Prince, he hadn't written 'try this out, it's really good' — he was just making notes for himself, wasn't he, not for anyone else. . . ."

"Are you telling me," said Hermione, "that you're going to go back — ?"

"And get the book? Yeah, I am," said Harry forcefully. "Listen, without the Prince I'd never have won the Felix Felicis. I'd never have known how to save Ron from poisoning, I'd never have —"

"— got a reputation for Potions brilliance you don't deserve," said Hermione nastily.

"Give it a rest, Hermione!" said Ginny, and Harry was so amazed, so grateful, he looked up. "By the sound of it, Malfoy was trying to use an Unforgivable Curse, you should be glad Harry had something good up his sleeve!"

"Well, of course I'm glad Harry wasn't cursed!" said Hermione, clearly stung. "But you can't call that Sectumsempra spell good, Ginny, look where it's landed him! And I'd have thought, seeing what this has done to your chances in the match —"Oh, don't start acting as though you understand Quidditch," snapped Ginny, "You'll only embarrass yourself."

Harry and Ron stared: Hermione and Ginny, who had always got on together very well, were now sitting with their arms folded, glaring in opposite directions. Ron looked nervously at Harry, then snatched up a book at random and hid behind it. Harry, however, little though he knew he deserved it, felt unbelievably cheerful all of a sudden, even though none of them spoke again for the rest of the evening.

"So, how's Juliunna?" Ron asked Hermione from behind the book, trying to change the subject.

"She's disappointed." Hermione said, "She's so sad. She told me Malfoy looked like he was dieing."

Harry felt a pang of guilt in his chest. He had tracked her down in the hallway a half hour ago to explain, but to his shock, she had unleashed a word of heated swear words and hex that sent him flying through the hall. He hadn't seen her since.

His lightheartedness was short-lived. There were Slytherin taunts to be endured next day, not to mention much anger from fellow Gryffindors, who were most unhappy that their Captain had got himself banned from the final match of the season. By Saturday morning, whatever he might have told Hermione, Harry would have gladly exchanged all the Felix Felicis in the world to be walking down to the Quidditch pitch with Ron, Ginny, and the others. It was almost unbearable to turn away from the mass of students streaming out into the sunshine, all of them wearing rosettes and hats and brandishing banners and scarves, to descend the stone steps into the dungeons and walk until the distant sounds of the crowd were quite obliterated, knowing that he would not be able to hear a word of commentary or a cheer or groan.

"Ah, Potter," said Snape, when Harry had knocked on his door and entered the unpleasantly familiar office that Snape, despite teaching floors above now, had not vacated; it was as dimly lit as ever and the same slimy dead objects were suspended in colored potions all around the walls. Ominously, there were many cob-webbed boxes piled on a table where Harry was clearly supposed to sit; they had an aura of tedious, hard, and pointless work about them.

"Mr. Filch has been looking for someone to clear out these old files," said Snape softly. "They are the records of other Hogwarts wrongdoers and their punishments. Where the ink has grown faint, or the cards have suffered damage from mice, we would like you to copy out the crimes and punishments afresh and, making sure that they are in alphabetical order, replace them in the boxes. You will not use magic."

"Right, Professor," said Harry, with as much contempt as he could put into the last three syllables.

"I thought you could start," said Snape, a malicious smile on his lips, "with boxes one thousand and twelve to one thousand and fifty-six. You will find some familiar names in there, which should add interest to the task. Here, you see . . ."

He pulled out a card from one of the topmost boxes with a flourish and read, "James Potter and Sirius Black. Apprehended using an illegal hex upon Bertram Aubrey. Aubrey's head twice normal size. Double detention." Snape sneered. "It must be such a comforting thing that, though they are gone, a record of their great achievements remains."

Harry felt the familiar boiling sensation in the pit of his stomach. Biting his tongue to prevent himself retaliating, he sat down in front of the boxes and pulled one toward him.

It was, as Harry had anticipated, useless, boring work, punctuated (as Snape had clearly planned) with the regular jolt in the stomach that meant he had just read his father or Sirius's names, usually coupled together in various petty misdeeds, occasionally accompanied by those of Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. And while he copied out all their various offenses and punishments, he wondered what was going on outside, whether the match would have just started . . . how Ginny was playing Seeker against Cho . . . If Malfoy was busy turning Juliunna against him.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23:

**Normal Pov**

Harry glanced again and again at the large clock ticking on the wall. It seemed to be moving half as fast as a regular clock; perhaps Snape had bewitched it to go extra slowly? He could not have been here for only half an hour ... an hour ... an hour and a half. . . .

Harry's stomach started rumbling when the clock showed half past twelve. Snape, who had not spoken at all since setting Harry his task, finally looked up at ten past one.

"I think that will do," he said coldly. "Mark the place you have reached. You will continue at ten o'clock next Saturday."

'Yes, sir."

Harry stuffed a bent card into the box at random and hurried out of the door before Snape could change his mind, racing back up the stone steps, straining his ears to hear a sound from the pitch, but all was quiet. ... It was over, then. . . .

He hesitated outside the crowded Great Hall, then ran up the marble staircase; whether Gryffindor had won or lost, the team usually celebrated or commiserated in their own common room.

"Quidditch?" he said tentatively to the Fat Lady, wondering what he would find inside.

Her expression was unreadable as she replied, "You'll see."

And she swung forward.

A roar of celebration erupted from the hole behind her. Harry gaped as people began to scream at the sight of him; several hands pulled him into the room.

"We won!" yelled Ron, bounding into sight and brandishing the silver Cup at Harry. "We won! Four hundred and fifty to a hundred and forty! We won!"

Harry looked around; there was Ginny running toward him; she had a hard, blazing look in her face as she threw her arms around him. And without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her.

After several long moments — or it might have been half an hour — or possibly several sunlit days — they broke apart. The room had gone very quiet. Then several people wolf-whistled and there was an outbreak of nervous giggling. Harry looked over the top of Ginny's head to see Dean Thomas holding a shattered glass in his hand, and Ramilda Vane looking as though she might throw something. Hermione was beaming, but Harry's eyes sought Ron. At last he found him, still clutching the Cup and wearing an expression appropriate to having been clubbed over the head. For a fraction of a second they looked at each other, then Ron gave a tiny jerk of the head that Harry understood to mean, _Well—if you must. _

"Harry!" Juliunna said the next day, and Harry found himself becoming nearly tackled by Juliunna's hug. "So your not mad about Malfoy?" He asked, hugging her back.

"No, he was back to normal in less then a week." She said excitedly. She pressed her lips to Harry's cheek. "And I only ignored you because it was appropriate as my role as an angry and grief sickened girlfriend. Oh…. _Ginny Weasley_?" She smirked. Harry released her with a laugh.

"Yeah."

…

The fact that Harry Potter was going out with Ginny Weasley seemed to interest a great number of people, most of them girls, yet Harry found himself newly and happily impervious to gossip over the next few weeks. After all, it made a very nice change to be talked about because of something that was making him happier than he could remember being for a very long time, rather than because he had been involved in horrific scenes of Dark magic.

"You'd think people had better things to gossip about," Said Ginny, as she sat on the common-room floor, leaning against Harry's legs and reading the Daily Prophet. "Three Dementor attacks in a week, and all Ramilda Vane does is ask me if it's true you've got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest."

Ron and Hermione both roared with laughter, making Juliunna twitch in her sleep, snuggling deeper into Ron's lap. Harry ignored them.

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her it's a Hungarian Horntail," said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. "Much more macho."

"Thanks," said Harry, grinning. "And what did you tell her Ron's got?"

"A Pygmy Puff, but I didn't say where."

Ron scowled as Hermione rolled around laughing.

"Watch it," he said, pointing warningly at Harry and Ginny. "Just because I've given my permission doesn't mean I can't withdraw it-!"

"Your permission", scoffed Ginny. "Since when did you give me permission to do anything? Anyway, you said yourself you'd rather it was Harry than Michael or Dean."

"Yeah, I would," said Ron grudgingly. "And just as long as you don't start snogging each other in public –"

"You filthy hypocrite! What about you and Lavender, thrashing around like a pair of eels all over the place?" demanded Ginny.

But Ron's tolerance was not to be tested much as they moved into June, for Harry and Ginny's time together was becoming increasingly restricted. Both Ginny and Juliunna's O.W.L.s were approaching and they were therefore forced to revise for hours into the night. On one such evening, when Ginny had retired to the library and Harry was sitting beside the window in the common room, supposedly finishing his Herbology home-work but in reality reliving a particularly happy hour he had spent down by the lake with Ginny at lunch-time, Hermione dropped into the seat between him and Ron with an unpleasantly purposeful look on her face.

"I want to talk to you about the Half blood prince." She said.

"Harry," Juliunna called, making Harry turn to her. "Hey-! Hey why are you using that?" Harry said, standing up. Juliunna was sitting on the couch, pointing her wand at a mega huge stuffed bear, leaning against a wall.

"I'm practicing the Dark Arts for my exam. An instructor all the way from Durmstrang is coming down to give me my OWL for it. Ginny said I could use it." She said with a shrug. Harry frowned. He had mail ordered that bear for Ginny.

"What did you want?" He asked.

"What was the spell you used on Draco?" She asked, raising her wand in a ready setting. "Sectumsempra. But don't-!"  
She brandished her wand in a flourished motion silently, and cuts like a sword appeared on the bear's body, white fuzzy insides spilling out a little. Harry choked.

"Oh don't worry, I can fix that." She smiled over her shoulder. She turned back to the bear with a small ball of gold from her wand, the bear was whole again, as if it had been perfectly stitched together.

"Juliunna, your going to have to use your spells out loud." Ron said. "How else are we going to learn from you?"

Juliunna sighed. "Yuvarious Texro!" She snapped, pointing out the bear. Its limbs separated, flying against the wall, tufts of stuffing flying everywhere.

"Blimey!" Ron said. "Repairo." She said, ignoring the three of them as the bear flew together.

Harry was shaken from these bitter reflections by the appearance at his side of Jimmy Peakes, who was holding out a scroll of parchment.

"Thanks, Jimmy ... hey, it's from Dumbledore!" Said Harry excitedly, unrolling the parchment and scanning it. "He wants me to go to his office as quick as I can!"

They stared at each other. Juliunna looked back, smiling. She pointing the wand over her shoulder, and the bear flew apart as if it was floating in space.

"Blimey," whispered Ron. "You don't reckon ... he hasn't found ...?"

"Better go and see, hadn't I?" said Harry, jumping to his feet. She waved the wand again and the bear formed back together.

"Good luck. Think fast." She said to Hermione. She slashed her wand at the bay window inches above Hermione's head, and the bright pink hex slashed over Hermione's head and hit the window with the force and sound of a lightning bolt, blasting it into a thousand pieces of glass.

"Juliunna!" Hermione shouted.

"Sorry." She said with a laugh.

Harry walked out the door, listening to Hermione yell at a laughing Juliunna.

…

Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione were sitting together in the common room when he came back, Juliunna dragging her wand across the bear's throat, creating a thin slice. "What does Dumbledore want?" Hermione said at once. "Harry, are you OK?" She added anxiously.

"I'm fine,'" said Harry shortly, racing past them. He dashed up the stairs and into his dormitory, where he flung open his trunk and pulled out the Marauder's Map and a pair of balled-up socks. Then he sped back down the stairs and into the common room, skidding to a halt where Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione sat, looking stunned.

"I haven't got much time," Harry panted, "Dumbledore thinks I'm getting my Invisibility Cloak. Listen ..."

Quickly he told them where he was going, and why. He did not pause either for Hermione's gasps of horror or for Ron's hasty questions; they could work out the finer details for themselves later.

"... so you see what this means?" Harry finished at a gallop. "Dumbledore won't be here tonight, so Malfoy's going to have another clear shot at whatever he's up to. No, listen to me!" he hissed angrily, as both Ron and Hermione showed every sign of interrupting. "I know it was Malfoy celebrating in the Room of Requirement. Here –" He shoved the Marauder's Map into Juliunna's hand. "You've got to watch him and you've got to watch Snape, too. Use anyone else who you can rustle up from the DA. Hermione, those contact Galleons will still work, right? Dumbledore says he's put extra protection in the school, but if Snape's involved, he'll know what Dumbledore's protection is, and how to avoid it - but he won't be expecting you lot to be on the watch, will he?"

"Harry –" began Hermione, her eyes huge with fear.

"I haven't got time to argue,' said Harry curtly. "Take this as well –" He thrust the socks into Ron's hands.

"Thanks," said Ron. "Er - why do I need socks?"

"You need what's wrapped in them, it's the Felix Felicis. Share it between yourselves and Ginny too. Say goodbye to her from me. I'd better go, Dumbledore's waiting –"

"No!" said Hermione, as Ron unwrapped the tiny little bottle of golden potion, looking awestruck. "We don't want it, you take it, who knows what you're going to be facing?"

"I'll be fine, I'll be with Dumbledore," said Harry. "I want to know you lot are OK ... don't look like that, Juliunna, I'll see you later "

And he was off, hurrying back through the portrait hole towards the Entrance Hall.

Juliunna lifted the map to her eyes. "How about I go down to the common room and sit with Draco instead? Keep an eye on him." Juliunna said.

"Juliunna I'm telling you, we probably don't have to do anything." Hermione said. "I think Harry's just…"

"Harry's just what?" Juliunna said, narrowing her eyes. "Hermione I'm telling you, Draco admitted to me that he's working on something for Voldemort, and he was really happy earlier. It's probably almost finished. Do you trust my judgment?" Juliunna asked. Hermione nodded. "Yes, yes of course."  
"Well I trust Harry. And I say that what he's doing is right, and what Draco is doing is plotting. I'm going to give you guys the map." Juliunna said, passing the map to them. "I'll see you later. I'm going to go keep an eye on Draco." She said with a smile.

"And if," Ron said, frowning. "If we had to find you there, what's the password. I mean seriously, if there's a chance of danger, we need you."

"The password's Tinklebinkle." Juliunna said.

"Eh?" Both Hermione and Ron said.

"I'm a prefect. I figured that if I made the password sound cute, no one would guess the right one. They would go with the obvious ones like Pureblood, Snake, Salazar, ect." Juliunna said with a small shrug.

"Heh, wise choice." Ron shrugged.

"But what do we do now?" Hermione said when Juliunna stood up. "Warn the DA members that there might be a need for their services." She spoke, and clutched the teddy bear tighter.

"And when should we distribute Felix?" Ron asked, holding up the vial. Juliunna frowned and bit her bottom lip softly. "I say we wait until suspicious activity is afoot." She said. Ron nodded.

"Juliunna, I think we need to reorganize." Hermione said, frowning.

"Eh?"

"Malfoy's running up the stairs now. Look," She said. Juliunna and Ron sat into the chair on either side of Hermione and squeezed together, staring at the map. "Yeah." Ron said with a frown. The dot labeled 'Draco Malfoy' was entering the seventh floor. They watched him stand outside where the Room of Requirement was, walk forward, and then disappear.

"Right. I have an idea." Juliunna breathed, a glare etching at her lips.

…

"I want Hermione and Luna to sit outside Snape's office. Keep an eye on him." Juliunna said. She was facing Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, and Neville.

"Okay." Luna said excitedly.

"The rest of us will be stationed outside the Room of Requirement." Juliunna continued, and her eyes flickered to the side. They were standing in the hallway outside Gryffindor Tower, Juliunna holding her wand close to her chest.

"And if anything happens?" Hermione said, her lip bubbling. "Nothing will. And if it does, trust me, it'll work out. I want everyone to take a sip of Felix. Only a tiny sip, because we have to balance it through the six of us." She said, smiling.

"Alright, hand it over Ron," She said, and as she spoke, she waved her wand. In front of her, all lined up, were tiny bowls the sizes of tiny pill tablets. Ron handed over the vial, and Juliunna opened it. With a flick of her wand, all of the potion was distributed evenly into the bowls.

"Everyone take one please, and then be let's all be off." She said, and everyone moved forward, grabbing a tablet. They drowned it all in one gulp. With words of pleasantries and well wishes, the kids spread into groups of two and set off to do as they were told.

…

Juliunna sat down against the wall with a loud yawn. The four of them had been sitting against the wall for almost an hour, staring at the stretch of space where the Room of Requirement should have been. "It's been forever." Ron groaned, and sat down beside her.

Ginny and Neville sat down too. "Anyone know what he could be doing in there?" Neville asked. "No idea-!" Juliunna shut her mouth, and everyone stood up straight. In front of them, the wall was materializing into a large wooden door. They all lifted there wands precariously.

The door open, and Draco stepped out. He looked around, and upon seeing them, smirked. He stepped fully into the doorway, and they could see him properly. One hand was clutching a shriveled mobile arm, the other hand some kind of powder. Juliunna's eyes widened as she noticed what he was holding.

"Draco-!"  
He threw the powder up and suddenly the hall was covered in pitch black. "Ah!" Ginny screamed, running into the wall hard. Everyone was stumbling. "This way." Draco said to someone. They could hear people hurrying by.

"Stup- Stupi-!"

"No!" Juliunna said hurriedly to Neville. "You might hit one of us. Just get to the wall." She directed them. They all walked like zombies until they hit the familiar stone wall. Then they moved forward. Neville, who had been going confidently fast, crashed into a column and hit the floor.

"This is hopeless. Lumos!" They could hear Ginny say. Nothing happened.

"I'll try Incendio." Juliunna said, and then waved her wand, thinking of the word Incendio very hard. Again, nothing happened.

"Come on, let's keep going." She said with a sigh. It took minutes to get out. They tripped over each other, and went to far and how to double back into the right hallway. By the time they reached light, they had to blink to get used to the sudden brightness.

"Come on, I'm pretty sure they went this way." Juliunna breathed. She took off down the hall hurriedly, her wand at the ready, and the others followed suit. When they rounded the corner, Juliunna let out a laugh of relief. The order was there. Tonks, Remus, Bill, Professor McGonagall and Flitwick. "Death eaters! In the Castle! This way!" She said excitedly, pointing down the hall. The kids hurriedly told them about what they saw. "Let's go." Remus said. The crowd hurried down the hall.

A few minutes later, they were facing the Death Eaters. They were about to enter the Astronomy Tower. Everyone raised there wands. For a second, there were two sides. The order and the kids, and the Death Eaters on the other side.

And then it was complete chaos.

"Be careful Neville!" Juliunna screamed as a Death Eater shot a hex that missed him by seconds.

"I'm good. Behind you!" He snapped, pointing his wand at her. She ducked and his spell hit the death eater behind her, flying backwards and hitting the wall. She saw Fenir Greyback run forward and tackle Bill, but before she could raise her own wand, she was pushed out of the way, her wand rolling across the floor. It was dark and dim in the room.

The room was filled with loud bangs and lights as spells went flying across the room. A death eater that Juliunna couldn't recognize ran up the stairs. She ran to her wand and scooped it up, turning around with a swivel. She shot a hex but it rebounded off a wall and hit Neville in the face, making him buckle to the floor in pain.

"Oh my goodness! Neville I'm so sorry!" She screamed. She leaned down and grabbed him. The death eaters scattered as Gibbon ran down to join the fight. She then remembered what she was doing before her distraction. Tonk's flew by her, but was back on her feet in a snap.

"Bill!" Juliunna screamed. She turned around and raised her wand. Fenir and Bill were locked in combat as they wrestled in front of the steps. She raised her wand and Fenir flew off of Bill with a loud growl. She gasped in pain. Someone behind her grabbed a fistful of her long hair, pulling her head back so hard she screamed. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Death Eater that had ran up the stairs come back down, and get hit by the Killing Curse that managed to just miss Remus.

"Argh!" Neville leaped forward and tackled the death eater to the floor. Ginny leapt aside as a Death Eater reached out, and the spell hit the wall beside her. Felix was working.

Juliunna raised her arm and angrily flipped it down, aiming at a short blonde one. Immediately, a bright red lightning bolt spewed towards him, and he was hit, falling down.

"Avada Kadavra-!"  
Juliunna pointed her wand at Ginny, and the curse bounced off her. Ginny nodded in thanks, but then everyone was distracted. "Alecto! The wall!" A girl screamed. Juliunna smirked. It was Alecto and Amycus Crowe. She had read about them, and she was going to enjoy punishing them for their future treatment of the children of Hogwarts. She curiously looked over to the wall Amycus mentioned. Instantly Alecto flicked his wand, and then everyone was screaming. Hex after curse after spell bounced off of the wall. Half of the ceiling caved in, and as three death eaters ran up the stairs, Juliunna had no choice but to let them go and block in the ceiling with a shield. With a crash, the wreckage fell into the shield, but everyone was dodging. A death eater was sending more spells off. A curse managed to miss Neville by inches. Ron ran forward and tripped over Bill's body with a yell.

Juliunna lurched over and fell. Snape had just pushed pass her, his black cloak billowing as he ran as fast as he could. He ran up the stairs and disappeared into the Astronomy Tower, and it was then that Juliunna realized that Draco was missing.

"Get up!" She screamed to Ron, slashing her wand like a knife at another Death Eater.

"We have to get upstairs!" Remus screamed. Neville reached the stairs first, running at full speed. Once he hit the fifth step, the atmosphere on the stairs turned into a transparent wall and he was thrown back at full speed. "Ah!" Juliunna screamed. She waved her wand, but it missed and Neville hit the floor hard, rolling shoulder to shoulder. Remus tried next, and he was thrown back.

"Stop trying!" Tonks screamed, and ran forward. The remaining few Death Eaters left ran up the stairs, leaving bouncing hexes.

"Reducto!" She screamed. And her spell hit red wall. "Reducto." Everyone yelled in unison. It did very little to the shield. Frowning, Juliunna walked forward until she was toe to toe with the line. She stepped over it, and then stepped back again.

"I knew it." She whispered. She raised her wand, ready to cast the spell that would send the wall crumbling, but froze.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked. She frowned softly. There was a small ripple on the other side. A shadow…

"Get back!" She shouted to the others, running backwards. The order hurried to follow her orders, and then the room exploded into darkness and light at the same time.

The Death Eaters ran forward, and the fight was back on. Juliunna waved her wand hard, and a ripple of electricity flew towards Amycus. Snape came through running, his hand on Draco's shoulder. Draco looked pale and sick. He looked up and gasped as he saw a distracted Juliunna was almost hit with a angry red hex that looked suspiciously like the Cruciatus Curse.

"It's over!" Snape shouted. "Let's go." He shouted at the Death Eaters, who slowly moved the battle to the hall.

"Juliunna-!" Draco snapped as a Death Eater's palm connected with her cheek, sending her crashing to the floor.  
"Leave her. She will be worse off where we're going." Snape snarled in his ear. Draco nodded, and Juliunna, looking set, let them pass. She set the cruciatus curse on the Death Eater who hit her, and the room interrupted with his screams. With a flick of Snape's wand, Juliunna's wand shot up into the air, and fell. Then Draco and Snape were rounding the corner and disappeared.

Juliunna had just stood up, when she was knocked off her feet. Harry ran pass her, his feet parading angrily as he ran down the hall and rounded the same one Draco and Snape had went down.

"Argh." Bill groaned, almost unnoticeably. With a sigh, she stood up. The last Death Eater in the room disappeared down the hall. When she reached the forgotten wand by her feet, she gave it a wave, and a stretcher appeared beside Bill, floating in mid air. With another flick of her wand, Bill floated up and landed on the stretcher softly. "Don't worry, we'll get you to the Hospital Wing B-!" She screamed loudly out of shock. Bill's face was so slashed and rippped, she was trying not to vomit. It was barely a face anymore. She couldn't make out any distinct features. Slowly, she held her wand out, and the gurney followed her as she moved towards the door. Ginny moved closer and gasped as she saw Bill. "Where are we bringing him?"

"Hospital Wing." Juliunna choked. As she passed a window, she glanced out the hall. She could see her boyfriend reach the Entrance Gates to Hogwarts. She could see Hagrid's hut, drenched in fire. Two figures, one of whom she was sure it was Harry, were fighting on the one noticed her wandering eye as she watched Draco look back at the Castle. She could tell it was him from his posture, his distinct smallness in height compared to the other Death Eaters running to the Entrance Gate.

With a small turn, Draco apperated on the spot, and he disappeared. With a sigh, she continued on, her wand guiding them.

…

**The Next Day, After Dumbledore's Funeral**

Hermione grinned a little through the small tears, though her smile faded as she looked up at the castle.

"I can't bear the idea that we might never come back." She said softly. "How can Hogwarts close?"

"Maybe it won't," said Ron. "We're not in any more danger here than we are at home, are we? Every where's the same now. I'd even say Hogwarts is safer, there are more wizards inside to defend the place. What d'you reckon, Harry?"

"I'm not coming back even if it does reopen," said Harry.

Ron gaped at him, but Hermione said sadly, "I knew you were going to say that. But then what will you do?"

"I'm going back to the Dursleys' once more, because Dumbledore wanted me to," said Harry. "But it'll be a short visit, and then I'll be gone for good."

"But where will you go if you don't come back to school?"

"I thought I might go back to Godric's Hollow," Harry muttered. He had had the idea in his head ever since the night of Dumbledore's death. "For me, it started there, all of it. I've just got a feeling I need to go there. And I can visit my parents' graves, I'd like that."

"And then what?" said Ron.

Then I've got to track down the rest of the Horcruxes, haven't I?' said Harry, his eyes upon Dumbledore's white tomb, reflected in the water on the other side of the lake. "That's what he wanted me to do, that's why he told me all about them. If Dumbledore was right - and I'm sure he was -there are still four of them out there. I've got to find them and destroy them and then I've got to go after the seventh bit of Voldemort's soul, the bit that's still in his body, and I'm the one who's going to kill him. And if I meet Severus Snape along the way," he added, "so much the better for me, so much the worse for him."

There was a long silence. The crowd had almost dispersed now, the stragglers giving the monumental figure of Grawp a wide berth as he cuddled Hagrid, whose howls of grief were still echoing across the water.

"We'll be there, Harry," said Ron.

"What?"

At your aunt and uncle's house,' said Ron. "And then we'll go with you, wherever you're going."

"No –" said Harry quickly; he had not counted on this, he had meant them to understand that he was undertaking this most dangerous journey alone.

"You said to us once before," said Hermione quietly, "That there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?"

"We're with you whatever happens," said Ron. "But, mate, you're going to have to come round my mum and dad's house before we do anything else, even Godric's Hollow."

"Why?"

"Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?"

Harry looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful.

"Yeah, we shouldn't miss that," he said finally.

"What about Juliunna?" Hermione asked. "We could really have some use for her. And she's in as deep in You Know Who's book as you." Hermione said. Harry looked over her shoulder at Juliunna. She was standing alone in a crowded group of Slytherins trying to catch her attention. She was staring at Dumbledore's grave, shaking her head briefly. He walked forward.

The Slytherins parted as he walked forward, and he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Juliunna, I suppose you know what me and the rest are doing." He said, jetting his head towards Hermione and Ron. The Slytherins stared in interest, but Juliunna turned around, smiling now. "Yeah. I do. And I'm going to have to have to think about it." She said, and turned to look at the Horizon.

"Would you really want to go with You Know Who? After-!"

"Of course not." She snapped at him. "I'm just… Trying to figure out if my story resides with you guys, or with him. It's all the matter of choice. Both can live without me, but then again, both want me." She laughed. She looked away from the admiring Slytherins in awe, and leaned in close to Harry's ear.

"Let me think about it at the burrow. And if it still resolves into a choice, I'm sure I'll chose right." She said, and pecked Harry on the cheek with her smooth lips. "No matter what, I do wish you good luck with your mission though." She said with a pearly wide smile.

His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

**Normal Pov**

Harry was staring inside the cupboard under the stairs. Remembering when he used to sleep here himself. The Dursley's had left ten minutes ago, to never return. He was waiting for the order to retrieve him.

There was a sudden, deafening roar from somewhere nearby. Harry straightened up with a jerk and smacked the top of his head on the low door frame. Pausing only to employ a few of Uncle Vernon's choicest swear words, he staggered back into the kitchen, clutching his head and staring out of the window into the back garden.

The darkness seemed to be rippling, the air itself quivering. Then, one by one, figures began to pop into sight as their Disillusionment Charms lifted. Dominating the scene was Hagrid, wearing a helmet and goggles and sitting astride an enormous motorbike with a black sidecar attached. All around him other people were dismounting from brooms and, in two cases, skeletal, black winged horses.

Wrenching open the back door, Harry hurtled into their midst. There was a general cry of greeting as Hermione flung her arms around him, Ron clapped him on the back, and Hagrid said, "All righ', Harry? Ready fer the off?"

"Definitely," said Harry, beaming around at them all. "But I wasn't expecting this many of you!"

"Change of plan," growled Mad-Eye, who was holding two enormous bulging sacks, and whose magical eye was spinning from darkening sky to house to garden with dizzying rapidity. "Let's get undercover before we talk you through it."

Harry led them all back into the kitchen where, laughing and chattering, they settled on chairs, sat themselves upon Aunt Petunia's gleaming work surfaces, or leaned up against her spotless appliances; Ron, long and lanky; Hermione, her bushy hair tied back in a long plait; Fred and George, grinning identically; Bill, badly scarred and longhaired; Mr. Weasley, kind-faced, balding, his spectacles a little awry; Mad-Eye, battle-worn, one-legged, his bright blue magical eye whizzing in its socket; Tonks, whose short hair was her favorite shade of bright pink; Lupin, grayer, more lined; Fleur, slender and beautiful, with her long silvery blonde hair; Kingsley, bald and broad-shouldered; Hagrid, with his wild hair and beard, standing hunchbacked to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling; Juliunna Riddle, who was gazing around gently, tucking an oversized jacket closer together, and Mundungus Fletcher, small, dirty, and hangdog, with his droopy beady hound's eyes and matted hair. Harry's heart seemed to expand and glow at the sight: He felt incredibly fond of all of them, even Mundungus, whom he had tried to strangle the last time they had met.

"Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minister?" he called across the room.

"He can get along without me for one night," said Kingsley, "You're more important."

"Harry, guess what?" said Tonks from her perch on top of the washing machine, and she wiggled her left hand at him; a ring glistened there.

"You got married?" Harry yelped, looking from her to Lupin.

"I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet."

"That's brilliant, congra-!"

"All right, all right, we'll have time for a cozy catch-up later," roared Moody over the hubbub, and silence fell in the kitchen. Moody dropped his sacks at his feet and turned to Harry. "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an impressionable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent You-Know-Who getting in at you. Absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already. What he's really done is to stop you getting out of here safely."

"Second problem: You're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."

"I don't-!"

"The Trace, the Trace!" said Mad-Eye impatiently. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about underage magic! If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse is going to know about it, and so will the Death Eaters."

"We can't wait for the Trace to break, because the moment you turn seventeen you'll lose all the protection your mother gave you. In short, Pius Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."

Harry could not help but agree with the unknown Thicknesse.

"So what are we going to do?"

"We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, Thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike."

Harry could see flaws in this plan; however, he held his tongue to give Mad-Eye the chance to address them.

"Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions: when you come of age, or" Moody gestured around the pristine kitchen "you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?"

Harry nodded.

"So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn seventeen."

"The one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight. We've leaked a fake trail to the Ministry: They think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't rely on him getting the date wrong; he's bound to have a couple of Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kingsley's place, Molly's Auntie Muriel's you get the idea."

"Yeah," said Harry, not entirely truthfully, because he could still spot a gaping hole in the plan.

"You'll be going to Tonks's parents. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow. Any questions?"

"Er yes," said Harry. "Maybe they won't know which of the twelve secure houses I'm heading for at first, but won't it be sort of obvious once" he performed a quick headcount. "Fifteen of us fly off toward Tonks's parents?"

"Ah," said Moody, "I forgot to mention the key point. Fifteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents. There will be seven Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different safe house. With the exception of Miss Riddle here, who agrees that she is not in any prudent danger, and will be safer acting herself, and flying alone." He said, and Juliunna nodded.

From inside his cloak Moody now withdrew a flask of what looked like mud. There was no need for him to say another word; Harry understood the rest of the plan immediately.

"No!" he said loudly, his voice ringing through the kitchen. "No way!"

"I told them you'd take it like this," said Hermione with a hint of complacency.

"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives-!"

"Because it's the first time for all of us," said Ron.

"This is different, pretending to be me-!"

"It's really not that different." Juliunna said with a shrug.

"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," said Fred earnestly. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."

Harry did not smile.

"You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair."

"Well, there goes the plan," said George. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."

"Yeah, thirteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic; we've got no chance," said Fred.

"Funny," said Harry, "really amusing."

"If it has to come to force, then it will," growled Moody, his magical eye now quivering a little in its socket as he glared at Harry. "Everyone here's overage, Potter, and they're all prepared to take the risk."

Mundungus shrugged and grimaced; the magical eye swerved sideways to glance at him out of the side of Moody's head.

"Let's have no more arguments. Time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now."

"But this is mad, there's no need "

"No need!" snarled Moody. "With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side? Potter, if we're lucky he'll have swallowed the fake bait and he'll be planning to ambush you on the thirtieth, but he'd be mad not to have a Death Eater or two keeping an eye out, it's what I'd do. They might not be able to get at you or this house while your mother's charm holds, but it's about to break and they know the rough position of the place. Our only chance is to use decoys. Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven." He said, and Juliunna barked with laughter at that.

Harry caught Hermione's eye and looked away at once.

"So, Potter some of your hair, if you please."

Harry glanced at Ron, who grimaced at him in a just-do-it sort of way.

"Now!" barked Moody.

With all of their eyes upon him, Harry reached up to the top of his head, grabbed a hank of hair, and pulled.

"Good," said Moody, limping forward as he pulled the stopper out of the flask of potion. "Straight in here, if you please."

Harry dropped the hair into the mud like liquid. The moment it made contact with its surface, the potion began to froth and smoke, then, all at once, it turned a clear, bright gold.

"Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry," said Hermione, before catching sight of Ron's raised eyebrows, blushing slightly, and saying, "Oh, you know what I mean Goyle's potion tasted like bogies."

"Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please," said Moody.

Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Fleur lined up in front of Aunt Petunia's gleaming sink.

"We're one short," said Lupin.

"Here," said Hagrid gruffly, and he lifted Mundungus by the scruff of the neck and dropped him down beside Fleur, who wrinkled her nose pointedly and moved along to stand between Fred and George instead.

"I'm a soldier, I'd sooner be a protector," said Mundungus.

"Shut it," growled Moody. "As I've already told you, you spineless worm, any Death Eaters we run into will be aiming to capture Potter, not kill him. Dumbledore always said You-Know-Who would want to finish Potter in person. It'll be the protectors who have got the most to worry about, the Death Eaters'll want to kill them."

Mundungus did not look particularly reassured, but Moody was already pulling half a dozen eggcup-sized glasses from inside his cloak, which he handed out, before pouring a little Polyjuice Potion into each one.

"Altogether, then ..."

Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur, and Mundungus drank. All of them gasped and grimaced as the potion hit their throats; At once, their features began to bubble and distort like hot wax. Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking; their hair was darkening, Hermione's and Fleur's appearing to shoot backward into their skulls.

Moody, quite unconcerned, was now loosening the ties of the large sacks he had brought with him. When he straightened up again, there were six Harry Potters gasping and panting in front of him.

Fred and George turned to each other and said together, "Wow we're identical!"

"I dunno, though, I think I'm still better-looking," said Fred, examining his reflection in the kettle.

"Bah," said Fleur, checking herself in the microwave door, "Bill, don't look at me I'm 'ideous."

"Those whose clothes are a bit roomy, I've got smaller here," said Moody, indicating the first sack, "and vice versa. Don't forget the glasses, there's six pairs in the side pocket. And when you're dressed, there's luggage in the other sack."

The real Harry thought that this might just be the most bizarre thing he had ever seen, and he had seen some extremely odd things. He watched as his six doppelgangers rummaged in the sacks, pulling out sets of clothes, putting on glasses, stuffing their own things away. He felt like asking them to show a little more respect for privacy as they all began stripping off with impunity, clearly more at ease with displaying his body than they would have been with their own.

"I knew Ginny was lying about that tattoo," said Ron, looking down at his bare chest.

"Harry, your eyesight really is awful," said Hermione, as she put on glasses.

"Why aren't you cloaking yourself?" Harry asked Juliunna, who smirked. "Don't need it. I'm safer looking by myself anyway." She said with a shrug. Ron nodded, pulling on a shirt.

"Look's like I'm sticking with you Harry." Juliunna said with a smirk. Harry watched over her shoulder as Mad Eye's magic eye reared over to stare at her. "Yep. Hey, did you ever find out what happened to Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Yep." She said with a smile. "He was punished for not killing Dumbledore, but he did do his job, so he was rewarded for creating a passage way into Hogwarts." She said, flashing her palm. Harry eye's widened at the golden ring on her hand. "You got married?"

"What?" She said, frowning. "Of course not. He just bought me this. He had to visit France to help out his grandmother." She said, and smiled. "But the offer Voldemort offered him still stands." She winked, and Harry snickered as they turned to watch the others.

Once dressed, the fake Harry's took rucksacks and owl cages, each containing a stuffed snowy owl, from the second sack.

"Good," said Moody, as at last seven dressed, bespectacled, and luggage-laden Harry's faced him. "The pairs will be as follows: Mundungus will be traveling with me, by broom "

"Why'm I with you?" grunted the Harry nearest the back door.

"Because you're the one that needs watching," growled Moody, and sure enough, his magical eye did not waver from Mundungus as he continued, "Arthur and Fred."

"I'm George," said the twin at whom Moody was pointing. "Can't you even tell us apart when we're Harry?"

"Sorry, George "

"I'm only yanking your wand, I'm Fred really "

"Enough messing around!" snarled Moody. "The other one George or Fred or whoever you are you're with Remus. Miss Delacour."

"I'm taking Fleur on a thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms."

Fleur walked over to stand beside him, giving him a soppy, slavish look that Harry hoped with all his heart would never appear on his face again.

"Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral."

Hermione looked reassured as she answered Kingsley's smile; Harry knew that Hermione too lacked confidence on a broomstick.

"Which leaves you and me, Ron!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a mug tree as she waved at him.

Ron did not look quite as pleased as Hermione.

"And Miss Riddle on her broom, revolving around-!"

"An' you're with me, Harry. That all righ'?" Hagrid said with a smile, looking a little anxious. "We'll be on the bike, brooms an' Thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."

"That's great," said Harry, not altogether truthfully.

"We think the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom," said Moody, who seemed to guess how Harry was feeling. "Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into any Death Eaters, we're betting they'll choose one of the Potters who looks at home on a broomstick. All right then," he went on, tying up the sack with the fake Potters' clothes in it and leading the way back to the door, "I make it three minutes until we're supposed to leave. No point locking the back door, it won't keep the Death Eaters out when they come looking. Come on ..."

Harry hurried to gather his rucksack, Firebolt, and Hedwig's cage and followed the group to the dark back garden.

On every side broomsticks were leaping into hands; Hermione had already been helped up onto a great black thestral by Kingsley, Fleur onto the other by Bill. Hagrid was standing ready beside the motorbike, goggles on.

"Is this it? Is this Sirius's bike?" Harry asked as Juliunna hurried over, a broom in one hand as she tried to pull her hand up into a hair tie.

"The very same," said Hagrid, beaming down at Harry. "An' the last time yeh was on it, Harry, I could fit yeh in one hand!"  
Harry could not help but feel a little humiliated as he got into the sidecar. It placed him several feet below everybody else: Ron smirked at the sight of him sitting there like a child in a bumper car. Harry stuffed his rucksack and broomstick down by his feet and rammed Hedwig's cage between his knees. He was extremely uncomfortable. He jealously watched Juliunna mount her broom, adjusting her hair.

"Arthur's done a bit o' tinkering'," said Hagrid, quite oblivious to Harry's discomfort. He settled himself astride the motorcycle, which creaked slightly and sank inches into the ground. "It's got a few tricks up its sleeves now. Tha' one was my idea." He pointed a thick finger at a purple button near the speedometer.

"Please be careful, Hagrid." said Mr. Weasley, who was standing beside them, holding his broomstick. "I'm still not sure that was advisable and it's certainly only to be used in emergencies."

"All right, then." said Moody. "Everyone ready, please. I want us all to leave at exactly the same time or the whole point of the diversion's lost."

Everybody motioned their heads. "Hold tight now, Ron," said Tonks, and Harry saw Ron throw a forcing, guilty look at Lupin before placing his hands on each side of her waist. Hagrid kicked the motorbike into life: It roared like a dragon, and the sidecar began to vibrate.

"Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody. "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow. On the count of three. One ... two . **THREE**."

There was a great roar from the motorbike, and Harry felt the sidecar give a nasty lurch. He was rising through the air fast, his eyes watering slightly, hair whipped back off his face. Around him brooms were soaring upward too; the long black tail of a thestral flicked past. His legs, jammed into the sidecar by Hedwig's cage and his rucksack, were already sore and starting to go numb. So great was his discomfort that he almost forgot to take a last glimpse of number four Privet Drive. By the time he looked over the edge of the sidecar he could no longer tell which one it was. Juliunna rose up comfortably, her lips pursed. When she met his eye, she gave him a small smile, which he returned softly.

And then, out of nowhere, out of nothing, they were surrounded. At least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle in the middle of which the Order members had risen, oblivious Screams, a blaze of green light on every side. Hagrid gave a yell and the motorbike rolled over. Harry lost any sense of where they were. Streetlights above him, yells around him, he was clinging to the sidecar for dear life. Hedwig's cage, the Firebolt, and his rucksack slipped from beneath his knees.  
**  
****"No HELP!"**

The broomstick spun too, but he just managed to seize the strap of his rucksack and the top of the cage as the motorbike swung the right way up again. A second's relief, and then another burst of green light. The owl screeched and fell to the floor of the cage. Juliunna kneeled over, spinning with her broom upside down as a red stunning spell shot over her head.  
**  
****"No! NO!"**

The motorbike zoomed forward; Harry glimpsed hooded Death Eaters scattering as Hagrid blasted through their circle. Juliunna followed quickly, taking her own wand out.

"Hedwig, Hedwig " Harry said sadly.

But the owl lay motionless and pathetic as a toy on the floor of her cage. He could not take it in, and his terror for the others was paramount. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a mass of people moving, flares of green light, two pairs of people on brooms soaring off into the distance, but he could not tell who they were.

"Hagrid, we've got to go back, we've got to go back!" he yelled over the thunderous roar of the engine, pulling out his wand, ramming Hedwig's cage into the floor, refusing to believe that she was dead. "Hagrid, **TURN AROUND**!"

"My job's ter get you there safe, Harry!" bellow Hagrid, and he opened the throttle. "Stop! **STOP**!" Harry shouted, but as he looked back again two jets of green light flew past his left ear: Four Death Eaters had broken away from the circle and were pursuing them, aiming for Hagrid's broad back. Hagrid swerved, but the Death Eaters were keeping up with the bike; more curses shot after them, and Harry had to sink low into the sidecar to avoid them. Wriggling around he cried, "Stupefy!" and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they scattered to avoid it.

"Immobilous!" Juliunna cried at a death eater, and the spell missed by inches.

"Hold on, Harry, this'll do for 'em! Keep up Riddle!" roared Hagrid, and Harry looked up just in time to see Hagrid slamming a thick finger into a green button near the fuel gauge. A wall, a solid black wall, erupted out of the exhaust pipe. Craning his neck, Harry saw it expand in midair. Three of the Death Eaters swerved and avoided it, but the fourth was not so lucky; He vanished from view and then dropped like a boulder from behind it, his broomstick broken into pieces. One of his fellows slowed up to save him, but they and the airborne wall were swallowed by darkness as Hagrid leaned low over the handlebars and sped up. Juliunna was swerving as stunning spell after stunning spell flew by her ear. With gritted teeth, she turned around. "Avada Kadavra!" She screamed, but again the spell was missed as a cloaked figure swerved.

More Killing Curses flew past Harry's head from the two remaining Death Eaters' wands; they were aiming for Hagrid. Harry responded with further Stunning Spells: Red and green collided in midair in a shower of multicolored sparks, and Harry thought wildly of fireworks, and the Muggles below who would have no idea what was happening.  
"Here we go again, Harry, hold on!" yelled Hagrid, and he jabbed at a second button. This time a great net burst from the bike's exhaust, but the Death Eaters were ready for it. Not only did they swerve to avoid it, but the companion who had slowed to save their unconscious friend had caught up. He bloomed suddenly out of the darkness and now three of them were pursuing the motorbike, all shooting curses after it.

"This'll do it, Harry, hold on tight! Riddle, get ready for it! Speed it up!" yelled Hagrid,"You know Hagrid, you might want to stop yelling what your about to do!" Juliunna yelled back. Hagrid gave a hearty chuckle, and Harry saw him slam his whole hand onto the purple button beside the speedometer.

With an unmistakable bellowing roar, dragon fire burst from the exhaust, white-hot and blue, and the motorbike shot forward like a bullet with a sound of wrenching metal. Harry saw the Death Eaters swerve out of sight to avoid the deadly trail of flame, and at the same time felt the sidecar sway ominously: Its metal connections to the bike had splintered with the force of acceleration.

"It's all righ', Harry!" bellowed Hagrid, now thrown flat onto his back by the surge of speed; nobody was steering now, and the sidecar was starting to twist violently in the bike's slipstream.

"I'm on it, Harry, don' worry!" Hagrid yelled, and from inside his jacket pocket he pulled his flowery pink umbrella.

"Hagrid! No! Let me!"

**"REPAIRO!"**

There was a deafening bang and the sidecar broke away from the bike completely. Harry sped forward, propelled by the impetus of the bike's flight, then the sidecar began to lose height.

In desperation Harry pointed his wand at the sidecar and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The sidecar rose like a cork, unsteerable but at least still airborne. He had but a split second's relief, however, as more curses streaked past him: The three Death Eaters were closing in.

"I'm comin', Harry!" Hagrid yelled from out of the darkness, but Harry could feel the sidecar beginning to sink again: Crouching as low as he could, he pointed at the middle of the oncoming figures and yelled, "Impedimenta!"

The jinx hit the middle Death Eater in the chest; For a moment the man was absurdly spread-eagled in midair as though he had hit an invisible barrier: One of his fellows almost collided with him Then the sidecar began to fall in earnest, and the remaining Death Eater shot a curse so close to Harry that he had to duck below the rim of the car, knocking out a tooth on the edge of his seat.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Juliunna screamed, just catching up to them, and the man that was about to grab him fell towards the ground as another Death Eater hurried to save him.

"I'm comin', Harry, I'm comin'!" Hagrid yelled. Juliunna was now right beside the fallen sidecar, but so was another death eater. Harry couldn't climb on behind her without fear of attack.

She brought her wand up but didn't have time for a curse, Harry jumped up as she was punched square in the nose, her head snapping backwards roughly. "Son of a-!"

"Riddle watch out!" Hagrid shouted in warning. The death eater that had punched her raised his own wand, and Harry raised his.

"Incendio!" He screamed, and the fire poured out his wand, and the Death Eater had no choice but to swerve and

A huge hand seized the back of Harry's robes and hoisted him out of the plummeting sidecar; Harry pulled his rucksack with him as he dragged himself onto the motorbike's seat and found himself back-to-back with Hagrid. As they soared upward, away from the two remaining Death Eaters, Harry spat blood out of his mouth, pointed his wand at the falling sidecar, and yelled, "Confringo!"

He felt a dreadful, gut-wrenching pang for Hedwig as it exploded; the Death Eater nearest it was blasted off his broom and fell from sight; his companion fell back and vanished.

"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," moaned Hagrid, "I shouldn'ta tried ter repair it meself yeh've got no room "

"It's not a problem, just keep flying!" Harry shouted back, as two more Death Eaters emerged out of the darkness, drawing closer.

As the curses came shooting across the intervening space again, Hagrid swerved and zigzagged: Harry knew that Hagrid did not dare use the dragon-fire button again, with Harry seated so insecurely. Harry sent Stunning Spell after Stunning Spell back at their pursuers, barely holding them off. He shot another blocking jinx at them: The closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and his hood slipped, and by the red light of his next Stunning Spell, Harry saw the strangely blank face of Stanley Shunpike Stan ¨.  
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.

"That's him, it's him, it's the real one!"

The hooded Death Eater's shout reached Harry even above the thunder of the motorbike's engine: Next moment, both pursuers had fallen back and disappeared from view.

"Harry, what's happened?" bellowed Hagrid. "Where've they gone?"

"I don't know!"

But Harry was afraid: The hooded Death Eater had shouted, "It's the real one!" how had he known? He gazed around at the apparently empty darkness and felt its menace. Where were they?

He clambered around on the seat to face forward and seized hold of the back of Hagrid's jacket.

"Hagrid, do the dragon-fire thing again, let's get out of here!"

"Hold on tight, then, Harry! Riddle, grab on." Hagrid yelled. Juliunna flew closer and grabbed a piece of metal by Harry's knee. "You ready? Alright." Hagrid said.

There was a deafening, screeching roar again and the white-blue fire shot from the exhaust: Harry felt himself slipping backwards off what little of the seat he had. Hagrid flung backward upon him, barely maintaining his grip on the handlebars, Juliunna was effortlessly dragged with them, still speeding with her broom. "I think we've lost 'em kids, I think we've done it!" yelled Hagrid.

But Harry and Juliunna was not convinced; Fear lapped at them as they looked left and right for pursuers they was sure would come... Why had they fallen back? One of them had still had a wand... It's him... it's the real one... They had said it right after he had tried to Disarm Stan...

"We're nearly there, Harry, we've nearly made it!" shouted Hagrid.

Harry felt the bike drop a little, though the lights down on the ground still seemed remote as stars. "Hagrid, I think they retreated for a reason." Juliunna said nervously.

Then the scar on his forehead burned like fire: as a Death Eater appeared on either side of the bike, two Killing Curses missed Harry by millimeters, cast from behind. And then Harry saw him. Voldemort was flying like smoke on the wind, without broomstick or thestral to hold him, his snake-like face gleaming out of the blackness, his white fingers raising his wand again. Juliunna raised her own wand, ready to defend Harry.

Hagrid let out a bellow of fear and steered the motorbike into a vertical dive. Clinging on for dear life, Harry sent Stunning Spells flying at random into the whirling night. He saw a body fly past him and knew he had hit one of them, but then he heard a bang and saw sparks from the engine; the motorbike spiraled through the air, completely out of control.

Green jets of light shot past them again. Harry had no idea which way was up, which down: His scar was still burning; he expected to die at any second. A hooded figure on a broomstick was feet from him, he saw it raise its arm and grab Juliunna. His fingers were curling into her long hair, and she screamed a horrible scream, as her head was tilted back, and he raised his wand, looking as if he was about to Apparate. **"NO!"** Harry snapped.  
**  
****"NO!"**

With a shout of fury Hagrid launched himself off the bike at the Death Eater; to his horror, Harry saw both Hagrid and the Death Eater, falling out of sight, their combined weight too much for the broomstick.

Barely gripping the plummeting bike with his knees, Harry heard Voldemort scream, "Mine!"

Harry was in agony. He barely felt Juliunna climb over him and position herself in the drivers seat, ready to drive. The bike was more smoother now as she continued to descend.

It was over: He could not see or hear where Voldemort was; he glimpsed another Death Eater swooping out of the way and heard, "Avada-!"

As the pain from Harry's scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord. He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury. The remaining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, **"NO!" **Somehow, Harry found his nose an inch from the dragon-fire button. He punched it with his wand-free hand and the bike shot more flames into the air, hurtling straight toward the ground.

"Hagrid!" Harry called, holding on to the bike for dear life. "Hagrid. Accio Hagrid!"

"It's okay Harry! Everything's going to be okay!" Juliunna shouted.

The motorbike sped up, sucked towards the earth. Face level with the handlebars, Harry could see nothing but distant lights growing nearer and nearer: They was going to crash and there was nothing he could do about it. Behind him came another scream, "Your wand, Selwyn, give me your wand!"

He felt Voldemort before he saw him. Looking sideways, he stared into the red eyes and was sure they would be the last thing he ever saw: Voldemort preparing to curse him once more. "Stun her!" He screamed as Juliunna revved the bike. Harry could see something. A house. They were almost there. "It's alright Harry! Your gonna be okay!" She screamed to him. He leaned forward, his cheek resting on her shoulder as he tried to fight the white hot agony that was his scar.

"Stun her!" But Harry looked behind him. He could see stunning spells shooting towards them, he raised his wand and choked out, "Protego." They were feebly blocked. Voldemort was flying closer. An angry red spell shot out of nowhere and hit Juliunna full in the back. She let out a scream that made Harry's blood shiver, but then she fell forward and slammed her head on the handles, and he shook her. With a snap, she sat up fast, and then narrowed her eyes.

"Immob-!" They heard Voldemort scream, pointing a wand at Juliunna and Harry, but Juliuna pointed her wand over her shoulder at him. "Stupificaus Maxima!" Harry heard the spell make contact, heard Voldemort yell out angrily, and saw Juliunna smirk. "Almost there-!" She whispered.

"Sectumsempra!" She shouted without warning, and to Harry's shock, he heard a hiss of pain from Voldemort. He looked behind him.

They were going to pay for that. Voldemort was flying closer, his eyes red and angry. He was close. Voldemort had no wand, but his hands were outstretched, as if he was going to place them around Harry's neck. Closer.

"Ha!" Juliunna laughed, slamming her foot on the accelerator. Voldemort was so close to Harry, they could see the whites of each others eyes. A trickle of blood etched down Voldemort's cheek, which stretched into an evil smirk. Harry let out a choked scream as cold fingers brushed his skin.  
But then Voldemort vanished. Harry looked down and saw Hagrid spread-eagled on the ground below him. Juliunna pulled hard at the handlebars to avoid hitting him, groping for the brake, but with an earsplitting, ground trembling crash, they smashed into a muddy pond. The bike fell over, and immediately, Juliunna was on top of him, trying to get him to stand.

"Hagrid?" He muttered.

Harry struggled to raise himself out of the debris of metal and leather that surrounded him; his hands sank into inches of muddy water as he tried to stand. He could not understand where Voldemort had gone and expected him to swoop out of the darkness at any moment. Something hot and wet was trickling down his chin and from his forehead. He crawled out of the pond and stumbled toward the great dark mass on the ground that was Hagrid.

"Hagrid? Hagrid, talk to me "

But the dark mass did not stir.

"Who's there? Is it Potter? Are you Harry Potter?"

Harry did not recognize the man's voice. Then a woman shouted. "They've crashed. Ted! Crashed in the garden!"

…

Harry's head was swimming.

"Hagrid," he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.

The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions, with a burning sensation in his ribs and right arm. His missing tooth had been regrown. The scar on his forehead was still throbbing.

"Hagrid?"

He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in an unfamiliar, lamp lit sitting room. His rucksack lay on the floor a short distance away, wet and muddy. A fair-haired, big-bellied man was watching Harry anxiously.

"Hagrid's fine, son," said the man, "the wife's seeing to him and your friend now. How are you feeling? Anything else broken? I've fixed your ribs, your tooth, and your arm. I'm Ted, by the way, Ted Tonks Dora's father."

Harry sat up too quickly. Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and giddy.

"Voldemort "

"Easy, now," said Ted Tonks, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him back against the cushions. "That was a nasty crash you just had. What happened, anyway? Something go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again, him and his Muggle contraptions?"

"No," said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. "Death Eaters, loads of them we were chased by."

"Death Eaters?" said Ted sharply. "What d'you mean, Death Eaters? I thought they didn't know you were being moved tonight, I thought-!"

"They knew," said Harry.

Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky above.

"Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don't we? They shouldn't be able to get within a hundred yards of the place in any direction."

Now Harry understood why Voldemort had vanished; it had been at the point when the motorbike crossed the barrier of the Order's charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great transparent bubble.

He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes before he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face covered in mud and blood, limping a little but miraculously alive. Juliunna was behind him, smiling and looking like a brand new toy.

"Harry!"

Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidistra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs. "Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o' that? I thought we were all goners." He said, putting Harry down. Juliunna hugged him too, smiling brightly.

"Yeah, me too. I can't believe "

Harry broke off. He had just noticed the woman who had entered the room behind Hagrid.

"You!" he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.

"Your wand's here, son," said Ted, tapping it on Harry's arm. "It fell right beside you, I picked it up...And that's my wife you're shouting at."

"Oh, I'm, I'm sorry."

As she moved forward into the room, Mrs. Tonks's resemblance to her sister Bellatrix became much less pronounced: Her hair was a light soft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder. Nevertheless, she looked a little haughty after Harry's exclamation.

"What happened to our daughter?" she asked. "Hagrid said you were ambushed; where is Nymphadora?"

"I don't know," said Harry. "We don't know what happened to anyone else."

She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expressions, if any of the others had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He had consented to the plan, given them his hair.

"The Portkey," he said, remembering all of a sudden. "We've got to get back to the Burrow and find out then we'll be able to send you word, or Tonks will, once she's-!"

"Dora'll be ok, 'Dromeda," said Ted. "She knows her stuff, she's been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors. The Port key's through here," he added to Harry. "It's supposed to leave in three minutes, if you want to take it."

"Yeah, we do," said Harry. He seized his rucksack, swung it onto his shoulders. "I-!"

He looked at Mrs. Tonks, wanting to apologize for the state of fear in which he left her and for which he felt so terribly responsible, but no words occurred to him that he did not seem hollow and insincere.

"I'll tell Tonks Dora to send word, when she... Thanks for patching us up, thanks for everything, I "

He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and into a bedroom. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the door lintel.

"There you go, son. That's the Portkey."

Mr. Tonks was pointing to a small, silver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing table.

"Thanks," said Harry, reaching out to place a finger on it, ready to leave.

"Wait a moment," Juliunna said a she and Hagrid entered. looking around. "Harry, where's Hedwig?"

"She... she got hit," said Harry.

The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.

Hagrid reached out a great hand and patted him painfully on the shoulder, and Juliunna gave him a sad, side hug. With her other hand, she placed a finger on the brush.

"Never mind," he said gruffly, "Never mind. She had a great old life "

"Hagrid!" said Ted Tonks warningly, as the hairbrush glowed bright blue, and Hagrid only just got his forefinger to it in time.

With a jerk behind the navel as though an invisible hook and line had dragged him forward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spinning uncontrollably, his finger glued to the Portkey as he, Juliunna, and Hagrid hurtled away from Mr. Tonks. Second later, Harry's feet slammed onto hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow. He heard screams. Throwing aside the no longer glowing hairbrush, Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on landing, clambered laboriously to his feet.

"Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.

"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.

The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.

"The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her, "We were surrounded the moment we took off they knew it was tonight I don't know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us "

He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but-!

"Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pulling him into a hug he did not feel he deserved. Juliunna gave her a hug, and Mrs. Weasley pecked her on the forehead. "Fought like a solider didn't you?"

"And I learned to drive!" Juliunna smirked. Harry laughed for the first time, rather shortly, but it was a laugh.

"Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily, "Fer medicinal purposes?"

She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for information at once.

"Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them," she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby. "And that one," she pointed at an ancient sneaker, "should have been Dad and Fred's, they were supposed to be second. You two and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin aught to be back in about a minute."

Mrs. Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one. "Any vodka Mrs. Weasley? I preferred mixed drinks." She said with a smile. Mrs. Weasley let out a dead chuckle, but nonetheless smacked her on the shoulder.

"Mum!" shouted Ginny pointing to a spot several feet away.

A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George appeared, spinning and then falling. Harry knew immediately that there was something wrong: Lupin was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood.

Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. Together, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the living room, where they laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny and Juliunna gasped, and Harry's stomach lurched: One of George's ears was missing. The side of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.

No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son that Lupin grabbed Harry by the upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, back into the kitchen, where Hagrid was still attempting to ease his bulk through the back door.

"Oy!" said Hagrid indignantly, "Le' go of him! Le' go of Harry!"

Lupin ignored him.

"What creature sat in the corner the first time that Harry Potter visited my office at Hogwarts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"

"A Grindylow in a tank, wasn't it?"

Lupin released Harry and fell back against a kitchen cupboard.

"Wha' was tha' about?" roared Hagrid.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but I had to check," said Lupin tersely. "We've been betrayed. Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only people who could have told him were directly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."

"So why aren' you checking' me?" panted Hagrid, still struggling with the door. Juliunna laughed shortly. Until Lupin turned his wand on her. "It's her." Harry said quickly, and then Lupin dropped his wand.

"Because you're half-giant," said Lupin, looking up at Hagrid. "The Polyjuice Potion is designed for human use only."

"None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight," said Harry. The idea was dreadful to him, he could not believe it of any of them. "Voldemort only caught up with me toward the end, he didn't know which one I was in the beginning. If he'd been in on the plan he'd have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid."

"Voldemort caught up with you?" said Lupin sharply. "What happened? How did you escape?"

Harry explained how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Voldemort, who had appeared just before he, Juliunna, and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of Tonks's parents.

"They recognized you? But how? What had you done?"

"I..." Harry tried to remember; the whole journey seemed like a blur of panic and confusion. "I saw Stan Shunpike... You know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of well, he doesn't know what he's doing, does he? He must be Imperiused!"

Lupin looked aghast.

"Harry, the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill you! At least Stun if you aren't prepared to kill!"

"We were hundreds of feet up! Stan's not himself, and if I Stunned him and he'd fallen, he'd have died the same as if I'd used Avada Kadavra! Expelliarmus saved me from Voldemort two years ago," Harry added defiantly. Lupin was reminding him of the sneering Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore's Army how to Disarm.

"Yes, Harry," said Lupin with painful restraint, "and a great number of Death Eaters witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under the imminent threat of death. Repeating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!"

"So you think I should have killed Stan Shunpike?" said Harry angrily.

"Of course not," said Lupin, "but the Death Eaters frankly, most people would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!"

Lupin was making Harry feel idiotic, and yet there was still a grain of defiance inside him.

"I won't blast people out of my way just because they're there," said Harry, "That's Voldemort's job."

Lupin's retort was lost: Finally succeeding in squeezing through the door, Hagrid staggered to a chair and sat down; it collapsed beneath him. Ignoring his mingled oaths and apologies, Harry addressed Lupin again. Juliunna walked forward to help Hagrid up.

"Will George be okay?"

All Lupin's frustration with Harry seemed to drain away at the question.

"I think so, although there's no chance of replacing his ear, not when it's been cursed off "

There was a scuffling from outside. Lupin dived for the back door; Harry leapt over Hagrid's legs and sprinted into the yard.

Two figures had appeared in the yard, and as Harry ran toward them he realized they were Hermione, now returning to her normal appearance, and Kingsley, both clutching a bent coat hanger, Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms, and grabbed Juliunna to hug her too, but Kingsley showed no pleasure at the sight of either of them. Over Hermione's shoulder Harry saw him raise his wand and point it at Lupin's chest.

"The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us!"

"'Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him,'" said Lupin calmly.

Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Lupin said, "It's him, I've checked!"

"All right, all right!" said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak, "But somebody betrayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!"

"So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realize that there would be seven Harry's."

"Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"

"Only Harry, Hagrid, George, Juliunna, and me."

Hermione stifled a little moan behind her hand.

"What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley.

"Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, "and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can-!"

"Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and Jules and me."

"So that's why he left, to follow you!" said Kingsley, "I couldn't understand why he'd vanished. But what made him change targets?"

"Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shunpike," said Lupin.

"Stan?" repeated Hermione. "But I thought he was in Azkaban?"

Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.

"Hermione, there's obviously been a mass breakout which the Ministry has hushed up. Travers's hood fell off when I cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. But what happened to you, Remus? Where's George?"

"He lost an ear," said Lupin.

"Lost an ear?" repeated Hermione in a high voice.

"Snape's work," said Lupin.

"Snape?" shouted Harry. "You didn't say "

"He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumsempra was always a specialty of Snape's. I wish I could say I'd paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood."

Silence fell between the six of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, uninsured by flying friends. Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Mr. Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus?

"Harry, give us a hand!" called Hagrid hoarsely from the door, in which he was stuck again. Glad of something to do, Harry pulled him free, the headed through the empty kitchen and back into the sitting room, where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were still tending to George. Mrs. Weasley had staunched his bleeding now, and by the lamplight Harry saw a clean gaping hole where George's ear had been.

"How is he?"

Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, "I can't make it grow back, not when it's been removed by Dark Magic. But it could've been so much worse... He's alive."

"Yeah," said Harry. "Thank God."

"Did I hear someone else in the yard?" Ginny asked.

"Hermione and Kingsley," said Harry.

"Thank goodness," Ginny whispered. They looked at each other; Harry wanted to hug her, hold on to her; he did not even care much that Mrs. Weasley was there, but before he could act on the impulse, there was a great crash from the kitchen.

"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!"

Harry had never heard Mr. Weasley shout like that before. He burst into the living room, his bald patch gleaming with sweat, his spectacles askew, Fred right behind him, both pale but uninjured. Juliunna came in, drawn by the commotion.

"Arthur!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goodness!"

"How is he?"

Mr. Weasley dropped to his knees beside George. For the first time since Harry had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words. He gaped over the back of the sofa at his twin's wound as if he could not believe what he was seeing.

Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their father's arrival, George stirred.

"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.

George's fingers groped for the side of his head.

"Saint like," he murmured.

"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"

"Saint like," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see... I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?"

Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.

"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before you, you go for holey?"

"Ah well," said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum." He said as Juliunna threw an arm around Molly's shoulders in comfort.

George looked around.

"Hi, Harry you are Harry, right?"

"Yeah, I am," said Harry, moving closer to the sofa.

"Well, at least we got you back okay," said George. "Why aren't Ron and Bill huddled round my sickbed?"

"They're not back yet, George," said Mrs. Weasley. George's grin faded. Harry glanced at Ginny and motioned to her to accompany him back outside. As they walked through the kitchen she said in a low voice.

"Ron and Tonks should be back by now. They didn't have a long journey; Auntie Muriel's not that far from here."

Harry said nothing. He had been trying to keep fear at bay ever since reaching the Burrow, but now it enveloped him, seeming to crawl over his skin, throbbing in his chest, clogging his throat. As they walked down the back steps into the dark yard, Ginny took his hand.

Kingsley was striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned. Harry was reminded of Uncle Vernon pacing the living room a million years ago. Hagrid, Hermione, and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing upward in silence. None of them looked around when Harry and Ginny joined their silent vigil. Accompanied by Juliunna, who laid her head on Harry's shoulders. Ginny gave a quiet cough, but didn't say anything despite.

The minutes stretched into what might as well have been years. The slightest breath of wind made them all jump and turn toward the whispering bush or tree in the hope that one of the missing Order members might leap unscathed from its leaves.

And then a broom materialized directly above them and streaked toward the ground.

"It's them!" screamed Hermione.

Tonks landed in a long skid that sent earth and pebbles everywhere.

"Remus!" Tonks cried as she staggered off the broom into Lupin's arms. His face was set and white: He seemed unable to speak, Ron tripped dazedly toward Harry and Hermione. Juliunna grabbed him by the shoulder and brushed off the dust. He gave her a quick hug. When she made him release her, Hermione walked forward.

"You're okay," he mumbled, before Hermione flew at him and hugged him tightly.

"I thought, I thought "

"I'm all right," said Ron, patting her on the back. "I'm fine."

"Ron was great," said Tonks warmly, relinquishing her hold on Lupin. "Wonderful. Stunned one of the Death Eaters, straight to the head, and when you're aiming at a moving target from a flying broom "

"You did?" said Hermione, gazing up at Ron with her arms still around his neck.

"Always the tone of surprise," he said a little grumpily, breaking free. "Are we the last back?"

"No," said Ginny, "we're still waiting for Bill and Fleur and Mad-Eye and Mundungus. I'm going to tell Mum and Dad you're okay, Ron "

She ran back inside.

"So what kept you? What happened?" Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.

"Bellatrix," said Tonks. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, She tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus... Then we got to Ron's Auntie Muriel's and we missed our Portkey and she was fussing over us "

A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else.

"So what happened to you lot?" Tonks asked, turning to Harry, Juliunna, Hermione, and Kingsley.

They recounted the stories of their own journeys, but all the time the continued absence of Bill, Fleur, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon them like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to ignore.

"I'm going to have to get back to Downing Street, I should have been there an hour ago," said Kingsley finally, after a last sweeping gaze at the sky. "Let me know when they're back."

Lupin nodded. With a wave to the others, Kingsley walked away into the darkness toward the gate. Harry thought he heard the faintest pop as Kingsley Disapparated just beyond the Burrow's boundaries.

Mr. And Mrs. Weasley came racing down the back steps, Ginny behind them. Both parents hugged Ron before turning to Lupin and Tonks.

"Thank you," said Mrs. Weasley, "for our sons."

"Don't be silly, Molly," said Tonks at once.

"How's George?" asked Lupin.

"What's wrong with him?" piped up Ron.

"He's lost "

But the end of Mrs. Weasley's sentence was drowned in a general outcry. A thestral had just soared into sight and landed a few feet from them. Bill and Fleur slid from its back, windswept but unhurt.

"Bill! Thank God, thank God "

Mrs. Weasley ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead."

Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Harry felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever.

"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort he can fly went straight for them. Dung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated. Voldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail "

Bill's voice broke.

"Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Lupin.

They all stood looking at each other. Harry could not quite comprehend it. Mad-Eye dead; it could not be... Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor... Juliunna was shaking her head briefly, just like she had done back at Dumbledore's funeral. For her, it was an expression of grief. She followed Ron, Hermione, and Harry as they all gather closer.

At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed Mr. And Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.

"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's-!"

"Mad-Eye," said Mr. Weasley, "Dead."

The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, Harry knew, his favorite and his protégé at the Ministry of Magic. Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.

Juliunna walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of fire-whisky and some glasses.

"Here," She said, and with a wave of her wand, she sent thirteen full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the fourteen aloft. "To Mad-Eye."

"Mad-Eye," they all said, and drank.

"Mad-Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccup. The Firewhisky seared Harry's throat. It seemed to burn feeling back into him, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality firing him with something that was like courage.

"So Mundungus disappeared?" said Lupin, who had drained his own glass in one.

The atmosphere changed at once. Everybody looked tense, watching Lupin, both wanting him to go on, it seemed to Harry, and slightly afraid of what they might hear.

"I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn't they? But Mundungus can't have betrayed us. They didn't know there would be seven Harry's, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggery. Why wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as that. He didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them. It was enough to make anyone panic."

"You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad-Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks. "Mad-Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled Aurors. He chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley... "

"Yes, and zat eez all very good," snapped Fleur, "but still eet does not explain 'ow zey know we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been careless. Somebody let slip ze date to an outsider. It is ze only explanation for ze knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan."

She glared around at them all, tear tracks still etched on her beautiful face, silently daring any of them to contradict her. Nobody did. The only sound to break the silence was that of Hagrid hiccupping from behind his handkerchief. Harry glanced at Hagrid, who had just risked his own life to save Harry's Hagrid, whom he loved, whom he trusted, who had once been tricked into giving Voldemort crucial information in exchange for a dragon's egg...

"No," Harry said aloud, and they all looked at him, surprised: The Firewhisky seemed to have amplified his voice. "I mean... if somebody made a mistake," Harry went on, "and let something slip, I know they didn't mean to do it. It's not their fault," he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken. "We've got to trust each other. I trust all of you, I don't think anyone in this room would ever sell me to Voldemort."

More silence followed his words. They were all looking at him; Harry felt a little hot again, and drank some more Firewhisky for something to do. As he drank, he thought of Mad-Eye. Mad-Eye had always been scathing about Dumbledore's willingness to trust people.

"Well said, Harry," said Fred unexpectedly.

"Year, 'ear, 'ear," said George, with half a glance at Fred, the corner of whose mouth twitched.

Lupin was wearing an odd expression as he looked at Harry. It was close to pitying.

"You think I'm a fool?" demanded Harry.

"No, I think you're like James," said Lupin, "who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends."

Harry knew what Lupin was getting at: that his father had been betrayed by his friend Peter Pettigrew. He felt irrationally angry. He wanted to argue, but Lupin had turned away from him, set down his glass upon a side table, and addressed Bill, "There's work to do. I can ask Kingsley whether "

"No," said Bill at once, "I'll do it, I'll come."

"Where are you going?" said Tonks and Fleur together.

"Mad-Eye's body," said Lupin. "We need to recover it."

"Can't it-!?" began Mrs. Weasley with an appealing look at Bill.

"Wait?" said Bill, "Not unless you'd rather the Death Eaters took it?"

Nobody spoke. Lupin and Bill said good bye and left.

The rest of them now dropped into chairs, all except for Harry, who remained standing. The suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence.

"I've got to go too," said Harry.

Ten pairs of startled eyes looked at him.

"Don't be silly, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, "What are you talking about?"

"I can't stay here."

He rubbed his forehead; it was prickling again, he had not hurt like this for more than a year.

"You're all in danger while I'm here. I don't want-!"

"But don't be so silly!" said Mrs. Weasley. "The whole point of tonight was to get you here safely, and thank goodness it worked. And Fleur's agreed to get married here rather than in France, we've arranged everything so that we can all stay together and look after you "

She did not understand; she was making him feel worse, not better.

"If Voldemort finds out I'm here "

"But why should he?" asked Mrs. Weasley.

"There are a dozen places you might be now, Harry," said Mr. Weasley. "He's got no way of knowing which safe house you're in."

"It's not me I'm worried for!" said Harry.

"We know that," said Mr. Weasley quietly, "but it would make our efforts tonight seem rather pointless if you left."

"Yer not goin' anywhere," growled Hagrid. "Blimey, Harry, after all we went through ter get you here?"

"Yeah, what about my bleeding ear?" said George, hoisting himself up on his cushions.

"I know that "

"Mad-Eye wouldn't want-!" Juliunna started, drinking from the bottle now.  
**  
****"I KNOW!"** Harry bellowed.

He felt beleaguered and blackmailed: Did they think he did not know what they had done for him, didn't they understand that it was for precisely that reason that he wanted to go now, before they had to suffer any more on his behalf? There was a long and awkward silence in which his scar continued to prickle and throb, and which was broken at last by Mrs. Weasley.

"Where's Hedwig, Harry?" she said coaxingly. "We can put her up with Pigwidgeon and give her something to eat."

His insides clenched like a fist. He could not tell her the truth. He drank the last of his Firewhisky to avoid answering.

"Wait till it gets out yeh did it again, Harry," said Hagrid. "Escaped him, fought him off when he was right on top of yeh!"

"It wasn't me," said Harry flatly. "It was my wand. My wand acted of its own accord."

After a few moments, Hermione said gently, "But that's impossible, Harry. You mean that you did magic without meaning to; you reacted instinctively."

"No," said Harry. "The bike was falling, I couldn't have told you where Voldemort was, but my wand spun in my hand and found him and shot a spell at him, and it wasn't even a spell I recognized. I've never made gold flames appear before."

"Often," said Mr. Weasley, "when you're in a pressured situation you can produce magic you never dreamed of. Small children often find, before they're trained "

"It wasn't like that," said Harry through gritted teeth. His scar was burning. He felt angry and frustrated; he hated the idea that they were all imagining him to have power to match Voldemort's.

"I believe him." Juliunna said. "His wand spun around in his hand, it was dragging him. Harry was half unconscious on my shoulder, it wasn't him." She said. "And it not impossible. And I'm sure if Dumbledore was here, he would have known exactly what had happened." She said with a smile.  
No one said anything.

He knew that they did not believe them. Juliunna ignored them and drowned the rest of the Firewhisky, making Mrs. Weasley shriek as she realized Juliunna was drinking. "Put the bottle done!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. Harry ignored them.

Now that he came to think of it, he had never heard of a wand performing magic on its own before, but he did agree with her. Dumbledore would know.

His scar seared with pain, it was all he could do not to moan aloud. Muttering about fresh air, he set down his glass and left the room.

As he crossed the yard, the great skeletal thestral looked up rustled its enormous bat like wings, then resumed its grazing. Harry stopped at the gate into the garden, staring out at its overgrown plants, rubbing his pounding forehead and thinking of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore would have believed him, he knew it. Dumbledore would have known how and why Harry's wand had acted independently, because Dumbledore always had the answers; he had known about wands, had explained to Harry the strange connection that existed between his wand and Voldemort's... But Dumbledore, like Mad-Eye, like Sirius, like his parents, like his poor owl, all were gone where Harry could never talk to them again. He felt a burning in his throat that had nothing to do with the Firewhisky. 


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25:

**Normal Pov**

The shock of losing Mad-Eye hung over the house in the days that followed; Harry kept expecting to see him stumping in through the back door like the other Order members, who passed in and out to relay news. Harry felt that nothing but action would assuage his feelings of guilt and grief and that he ought to set out on his mission to find and destroy Horcruxes as soon as possible.

"Well, you can't do anything about the," Ron mouthed the word 'Horcruxes'. "Till you're seventeen. You've still got the Trace on you. And we can plan here as well as anywhere, can't we? Or," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "d'you reckon you already know where the You-Know-Whats are?"

"No," Harry admitted.

"I think Hermione's been doing a bit of research," said Ron. "She said she was saving it for when you got here."

They were sitting at the breakfast table; Mr. Weasley and Bill had just left for work. Mrs. Weasley had gone upstairs to wake Hermione, Juliunna, and Ginny, while Fleur had drifted off to take a bath.

"The Trace'll break on the thirty-first," said Harry. "That means I only need to stay here four days. Then I can-!"  
"Five days," Ron corrected him firmly. "We've got to stay for the wedding. They'll kill us if we miss it."

Harry understood "they" to mean Fleur and Mrs. Weasley.

"It's one extra day," said Ron, when Harry looked mutinous.

"Don't they realize how important-!?"

"'Course they don't," said Ron. "They haven't got a clue. And now that you mention it, I wanted to talk to you about that."

Ron glanced toward the door into the hall to check that Mrs. Weasley was not returning yet, then leaned in closer to Harry.

"Mum's been trying to get it out of Hermione and me. What we're off to do. She'll try you next, so brace yourself. Dad and Lupin've both asked as well, but when we said Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone except us, they dropped it. Not Mum, though. She's determined."

Ron's prediction came true within hours. Shortly before lunch, Mrs. Weasley detached Harry from the others by asking him to help identify a lone man's sock that she thought might have come out of his rucksack. Once she had him cornered in the tiny scullery off the kitchen, she started.

"Ron and Hermione seem to think that the three of you are dropping out of Hogwarts," she began in a light, casual tone.

"Oh," said Harry. "Well, yeah. We are. And Juliunna might be coming with us too."

The mangle turned of its own accord in a corner, wringing out what looked like one of Mr. Weasley's vests.

"May I ask why you are abandoning your education?" said Mrs. Weasley.

"Well, Dumbledore left me... stuff to do," mumbled Harry. "Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione know about it, and they want to come too."

"What sort of 'stuff'?"

"I'm sorry, I can't "

"Well, frankly, I think Arthur and I have a right to know, and I'm sure Mr. And Mrs. Granger would agree!" said Mrs. Weasley. "And You Know Wo… Well no we shouldn't tell him." She frowned, and Harry fought back a snort. Though he did know what she was saying. Harry had been afraid of the "concerned parent" attack. He forced himself to look directly into her eyes, noticing as he did so that they were precisely the same shade of brown as Ginny's. This did not help.

"Dumbledore didn't want anyone else to know, Mrs. Weasley. I'm sorry. Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione don't have to come, it's their choice "

"I don't see that you have to go either!" she snapped, dropping all pretense now. "You're barely of age, any of you! It's utter nonsense, if Dumbledore needed work doing, he had the whole Order at his command! Harry, you must have misunderstood him. Probably he was telling you something he wanted done, and you took it to mean that he wanted you-!"

"I didn't misunderstand," said Harry flatly. "It's got to be me."

He handed her back the single sock he was supposed to be identifying, which was patterned with golden bulrushes.

"And that's not mine. I don't support Puddlemere United."

"Oh, of course not," said Mrs. Weasley with a sudden and rather unnerving return to her casual tone. "I should have realized. Well, Harry, while we've still got you here, you won't mind helping with the preparations for Bill and Fleur's wedding, will you? There's still so much to do."

"No I of course not," said Harry, disconcerted by this sudden change of subject.

"Sweet of you," she replied, and she smiled as she left the scullery.

From that moment on, Mrs. Weasley kept Harry, Juliunna, Ron and Hermione so busy with preparations for the wedding that they hardly had any time to think. The kindest explanation of this behavior would have been that Mrs. Weasley wanted to distract them all from thoughts of Mad-Eye and the terrors of their recent journey. After two days of nonstop cutlery cleaning, of color-matching favors, ribbons, and flowers, of de-gnoming the garden and helping Mrs. Weasley cook vast batches of canapés, however, Harry started to suspect her of a different motive. All the jobs she handed out seemed to keep him, Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione away from one another; he had not had a chance to speak to the two of them alone since the first night, when he had told them about Voldemort torturing Ollivanders.

"I think that Mum thinks that if she can stop the four of you getting together and planning, she'll be able to delay you leaving," Ginny told Harry in an undertone, as they laid the table for dinner on the third night of his stay.

"And then what does she thinks going to happen?" Harry muttered. "Someone else might kill off Voldemort while she's holding us here making au-vents?"

He had spoken without thinking, and saw Ginny's face whiten.

"So it's true?" she said. "That's what you're trying to do?"

"I… no I was joking," said Harry evasively.

They stared at each other, and there was something more than shock in Ginny's expression. Suddenly Harry became aware that this was the first time that he had been alone with her since those stolen hours in secluded corners of the Hogwarts grounds. He was sure she was remembering them too. Both of them jumped as the door opened, and Mr. Weasley, Kingsley, and Bill walked in.

They were often joined by other Order members for dinner now, because the Burrow had replaced number twelve, Grimmauld Place as the headquarters. Mr. Weasley had explained that after the death of Dumbledore, their Secret-Keeper, each of the people to whom Dumbledore had confided Grimmauld Place's location had become a Secret-Keeper in turn.

"And as there are around twenty of us, that greatly dilutes the power of the Fidelus Charm. Twenty times as many opportunities for the Death Eaters to get the secret out of somebody. We can't expect it to hold much longer."

"But surely Snape will have told the Death Eaters the address by now?" asked Harry.

"Well, Mad-Eye set up a couple of curses against Snape in case he turns up there again. We hope they'll be strong enough both to keep him out and to bind his tongue if he tries to talk about the place, but we can't be sure. It would have been insane to keep using the place as headquarters now that its protection has become so shaky."

The kitchen was so crowded that evening it was difficult to maneuver knives and forks. Harry found himself crammed between Juliunna and Ginny; the unsaid things that had just passed between them made him wish they had been separated by a few more people. He was trying so hard to avoid brushing Ginny's arm he could barely cut his chicken.

"No news about Mad-Eye?" Juliunna asked Bill.

"Nothing," replied Bill.

They had not been able to hold a funeral for Moody, because Bill and Lupin had failed to recover his body. It had been difficult to know where he might have fallen, given the darkness and the confusion of the battle.

"The Daily Prophet hasn't said a word about him dying or about finding the body," Bill went on. "But that doesn't mean much. It's keeping a lot quiet these days."

"And they still haven't called a hearing about all the underage magic I used escaping the Death Eaters?" Harry called across the table to Mr. Weasley, who shook his head.

"Because they know I had no choice or because they don't want me to tell the world Voldemort attacked me?"

"The latter, I think. Scrimgeour doesn't want to admit that You-Know-Who is as powerful as he is, nor that Azkaban's seen a mass breakout."

"Yeah, why tell the public the truth?" said Harry, clenching his knife so tightly that the faint scars on the back of his right hand stood out, white against his skin: _**I must not tell lies.**_

"Isn't anyone at the Ministry prepared to stand up to him?" asked Ron angrily.

"Of course, Ron, but people are terrified," Mr. Weasley replied, "terrified that they will be next to disappear, their children the next to be attacked! There are nasty rumors going around; I for one don't believe the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts resigned. She hasn't been seen for weeks now."  
"She's dead." Juliunna said quickly, nibbling on the end of a carrot.

"Meanwhile Scrimgeour remains shut up in his office all day; I just hope he's working on a plan." Mrs. Weasley continued as if Juliunna hadn't spoken.

There was a pause in which Mrs. Weasley magicked the empty plates onto the work surface and served apple tart.

"We must decide 'ow you will be disguised, 'Arry," said Fleur, once everyone had pudding. "For ze wedding," she added, when he looked confused. "Of course, none of our guests are Death Eaters, but we cannot guarantee zat zey will not let something slip after zey 'ave 'ad champagne."

From this, Harry gathered that she still suspected Hagrid.

"Yes, good point," said Mrs. Weasley from the top of the table where she sat, spectacles perched on the end of her nose, scanning an immense list of jobs that she had scribbled on a very long piece of parchment.

"Should Juliunna be disguised too?" Ron asked. "No." Juliunna said dully. Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips, and turned to Ron.

"Now, Ron, have you cleaned out your room yet?"

"Why?" exclaimed Ron, slamming his spoon down and glaring at his mother. "Why does my room have to be cleaned out? Harry and I are fine with it the way it is!"

"We are holding your brother's wedding here in a few days' time, young man " Mrs. Weasley said, her lips stretching very widely.

"And are they getting married in my bedroom?" asked Ron furiously. "No! So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left-!"

"Don't talk to your mother like that," said Mr. Weasley firmly. "And do as you're told."

Ron scowled at both his parents, then picked up his spoon and attacked the last few mouthfuls of his apple tart.

"I can help, some of it's my mess." Harry told Ron, but Mrs. Weasley cut across him.

"No, Harry, dear, I'd much rather you helped Arthur much out the chickens, and Hermione, I'd be ever so grateful if you'd change the sheets for Monsieur and Madame Delacour; you know they're arriving at eleven tomorrow morning. Juliunna, go sweep upstairs." She smiled.

But as it turned out, there was very little to do for the chickens. "There's no need to, er, mention it to Molly," Mr. Weasley told Harry, blocking his access to the coop, "but, er, Ted Tonks sent me most of what was left of Sirius's bike and, er, I'm hiding that's to say, keeping it in here. Fantastic stuff: There's an exhaust gaskin, as I believe it's called, the most magnificent battery, and it'll be a great opportunity to find out how brakes work. I'm going to try and put it all back together again when Molly's not I mean, when I've got time."

When they returned to the house, Mrs. Weasley was nowhere to be seen, so Harry slipped upstairs to Ron's attic bedroom.

"I'm doing it, I'm doing! Oh, it's you," said Ron in relief, as Harry entered the room. Ron lay back down on the bed, which he had evidently just vacated. The room was just as messy as it had been all week; the only change was that Juliunna and Hermione was now sitting in the far corner, Hermione's fluffy ginger cat, Crookshanks, at her feet, sorting books, some of which Harry recognized as his own, into two enormous piles.

"Hi, Harry," They both said, as he sat down on his camp bed.

"And how did you manage to get away?"

"Oh, Ron's mum forgot that she asked Ginny and me to change the sheets yesterday," said Hermione. "And I decided just not to sweep." Juliunna said with a shrug. She threw _Numerology and Grammatical_ onto one pile and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ onto the other.

"We were just talking about Mad-Eye," Ron told Harry. "I reckon he might have survived."

"But Bill saw him hit by the Killing Curse," said Harry.

"Yeah, but Bill was under attack too," said Ron. "How can he be sure what he saw?"

"Even if the Killing Curse missed, Mad-Eye still fell about a thousand feet," said Hermione, now weighting _Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland_ in her hand. Juliunna petted the cat by her feet.

"He could have used a Shield Charm." Ron said with a shrug.

"Fleur said his wand was blasted out of his hand," said Harry.

"Well, all right, if you want him to be dead," said Ron grumpily, punching his pillow into a more comfortable shape.

"Of course we don't want him to be dead!" Juliunna said, looking shocked. "It's dreadful that he's dead! But we're being realistic!"

For the first time, Harry imagined Mad-Eye's body, broken as Dumbledore's had been, yet with that one eye still whizzing in its socket. He felt a stab of revulsion mixed with a bizarre desire to laugh.

"The Death Eaters probably tidied up after themselves, that's why no one's found him," said Ron wisely.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Like Barty Crouch, turned into a bone and buried in Hagrid's front garden. They probably transfigured Moody and stuffed him "

"Don't!" squealed Hermione. Startled, Harry looked over just in time to see her burst into tears over her copy of **Spellman's Syllabary. **Juliunna scowled.**  
**  
"Oh no," said Harry, struggling to get up from the old camp bed. "Hermione, I wasn't trying to upset. "

But with a great creaking of rusty bedsprings, Ron bounded off the bed and got there first. One arm around Hermione, he fished in his jeans pocket and withdrew a revolting-looking handkerchief that he had used to clean out the oven earlier. Juliunna scowled with disgust at it. Hastily pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the rag and said, "Tergeo."

The wand siphoned off most of the grease. Looking rather pleased with himself, Ron handed the slightly smoking handkerchief to Hermione.

"Oh... thanks, Ron... I'm sorry..." She blew her nose and hiccupped. "It's just so awful, isn't it? R-right after Dumbledore... I j-just n-never imagined Mad-Eye dying, somehow, he seemed so tough!"

"Yeah, I know," said Ron, giving her a squeeze. "But you know what he'd say to us if he was here?"

"'C-constant vigilance,'" said Hermione, mopping her eyes.

"That's right," said Ron, nodding. "He'd tell us to learn from what happened to him. And what I've learned is not to trust that cowardly little squirt, Mundungus."

Hermione gave a shaky laugh and leaned forward to pick up two more books. A second later, Ron had snatched his arm back from around her shoulders; she had dropped _The Monster book of Monsters_on his foot. The book had broken free from its restraining belt and snapped viciously at Ron's ankle. Juliunna lifted her feet up hurriedly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Hermione cried as Harry wrenched the book from Ron's leg and retied it tight.

"What are you doing with all those books anyway?" Ron asked, limping back to his bed.

"Just trying to decide which ones to take with us," said Hermione, "When we're looking for the Horcruxes."

"Oh, of course," said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. "I forgot we'll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library." Juliunna choked down her laugh.  
"Ha ha," said Hermione, looking down at _Spellman's Syllabary_. "I wonder... will we need to translate runes? It's possible... I think we'd better take it, to be safe."

She dropped the Syllabary onto the larger of the two piles and picked up _Hogwarts, A History_.

"Listen," said Harry.

He had sat up straight. Ron and Hermione looked at him with similar mixtures of resignation and defiance.

"I know you said after Dumbledore's funeral that you wanted to come with me," Harry began.

"Here he goes," Ron said to Hermione, rolling his eyes.

"As we knew he would," he sighed, turning back to the books. "You know, I think I will take _Hogwarts, A History_. Even if we're not going back there, I don't think I'd feel right if I didn't have it with-!"

"Listen!" said Harry again.

"No, Harry, you listen," Juliunna snapped, standing up. "We're coming with you. That was decided months ago years, really."

"But-!"

"Shut up," Ron advised him.

"Are you sure you've thought this through?" Harry persisted.

"Let's see," said Hermione, slamming **Travels with Trolls** onto the discarded pile with a rather fierce look.

"Hermione and I have been packing for days, so we're ready to leave at a moment's notice, which for your information has included doing some pretty difficult magic, not to mention smuggling Mad-Eye's whole stock of Polyjuice Potion right under Ron's mum's nose." Juliunna said, and Harry looked at her, impressed.

"I've also modified my parents' memories so that they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That's to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me or you, because unfortunately, I've told them quite a bit about you." Hermione said, and she sniffed watery.

"Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I'll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don't, well, I think I've cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't know that they've got a daughter, you see."

Hermione's eyes were swimming with tears again. Ron got back off the bed, put his arm around her once more, and frowned at Harry as though reproaching him for lack of tact. Harry could not think of anything to say, not least because it was highly unusual for Ron to be teaching anyone else tact.

"I… Hermione, I'm sorry I didn't."

"Didn't realize that Ron and I know perfectly well what might happen if we come with you? Well, we do. Ron, show Harry what you've done."

"Nah, he's just eaten," said Ron.

"Go on, he needs to know!"

"Oh, all right. Harry, come here."

For the second time Ron withdrew his arm from around Hermione and stumped over to the door.

"C'mon." Ron muttered, and Hermione started talking to Juliunna about her necklace.

"Why?" Harry asked, following Ron out of the room onto the tiny landing.

"Descendo," muttered Ron, pointing his wand at the low ceiling. A hatch opened right over their heads and a ladder slid down to their feet. A horrible, half-sucking, half-moaning sound came out of the square hole, along with an unpleasant smell like open drains.

"That's your ghoul, isn't it?" asked Harry, who had never actually met the creature that sometimes disrupted the nightly silence.

"Yeah, it is," said Ron, climbing the ladder. "Come and have a look at him."

Harry followed Ron up the few short steps into the tiny attic space. His head and shoulders were in the room before he caught sight of the creature curled up a few feet from him, fast asleep in the gloom with its large mouth wide open.

"But it... it looks... do ghouls normally wear pajamas?"

"No," said Ron. "Nor have they usually got red hair or that number of pustules."

Harry contemplated the thing, slightly revolted. It was human in shape and size, and was wearing what, now that Harry's eyes became used to the darkness, was clearly an old pair of Ron's pajamas. He was also sure that ghouls were generally rather slimy and bald, rather than distinctly hairy and covered in angry purple blisters.

"He's me, see?" said Ron.

"No," said Harry. "I don't."

"I'll explain it back in my room, the smell's getting to me," said Ron. They climbed back down the ladder, which Ron returned to the ceiling, and rejoined Hermione and Juliunna, who was still sorting books. Well, Juliunna was now snuggling in Ron's bed, sleeping.

"It's astonishing how many times she shamelessly falls asleep." Harry said. Ron nodded, and then turned to Harry.

"Once we've left, the ghoul's going to come and live down here in my room," said Ron. "I think he's really looking forward to it well, it's hard to tell, because all he can do is moan and drool but he nods a lot when you mention it. Anyway, he's going to be me with spattergroit. Good, eh?"

Harry merely looked his confusion.

"It is!" said Ron, clearly frustrated that Harry had not grasped the brilliance of the plan. "Look, when we three don't turn up at Hogwarts again, everyone's going to think Hermione and I must be with you, right? Which means the Death Eaters will go straight for our families to see if they've got information on where you are."

"But hopefully it'll look like I've gone away with Mum and Dad; a lot of Muggle-borns are talking about going into hiding at the moment," said Hermione.

"We can't hide my whole family, it'll look too fishy and they can't all leave their jobs," said Ron. "So we're going to put out the story that I'm seriously ill with spattergroit, which is why I can't go back to school. If anyone comes calling to investigate, Mum or Dad can show them the ghoul in my bed, covered in pustules. Spattergroit is really contagious, so they're not going to want to go near him. It won't matter that he can't say anything, either, because apparently you can't once the fungus has spread to your uvula."

"And your mum and dad are in on this plan?" asked Harry.

"Dad is. He helped Fred and George transform the ghoul. Mum... well, you've seen what she's like. She won't accept we're going till we're gone."

There was silence in the room, broken only by gentle thuds as Hermione continued to throw books onto one pile or the other. Ron sat watching her, and Harry looked from one to the other, unable to say anything. The measure they had taken to protect their families made him realize, more than anything else could have done, that they really were going to come with him and that they knew exactly how dangerous that would be. He wanted to tell them what that meant to him, but he simply could not find words important enough.

Through the silence came the muffled sounds of Mrs. Weasley shouting from four floors below.

"Ginny's probably left a speck of dust on a poxy napkin ring," said Ron. "I dunno why the Delacours have got to come two days before the wedding."

"Fleur's sister's a bridesmaid, she needs to be here for the rehearsal, and she's too young to come on her own," said Hermione, as she pored indecisively over _Break with a Banshee_.

"Well, guests aren't going to help Mum's stress levels," said Ron.

"What we really need to decide," said Hermione, tossing _**Defensive Magical Theory**_ into the bin without a second glance and picking up An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, "is where we're going after we leave here. I know you said you wanted to go to Godric's Hollow first, Harry, and I understand why, but... well... shouldn't we make the Horcruxes our priority?"

"If we knew where any of the Horcruxes were, I'd agree with you," said Harry, who did not believe that Hermione really understood his desire to return to Godric's Hollow. His parents' graves were only part of the attraction: He had a strong, though inexplicable, feeling that the place held answers for him. Perhaps it was simply because it was there that he had survived Voldemort's Killing Curse; now that he was facing the challenge of repeating the feat, Harry was drawn to the place where it had happened, wanting to understand.

"Don't you think there's a possibility that Voldemort's keeping a watch on Godric's Hollow?" Hermione asked. "He might expect you to go back and visit your parents' graves once you're free to go wherever you like?"

This had not occurred to Harry. While he struggled to find a counterargument, Ron spoke up, evidently following his own train of thought.

"This R.A.B. person," he said. "You know, the one who stole the real locket?"

Hermione nodded.

"He said in his note he was going to destroy it, didn't he?"

Harry dragged his rucksack toward him and pulled out the fake Horcrux in which R.A.B.'s note was still folded.

"'I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.'" Harry read out.

"Well, what if he did finish it off?" said Ron.

"Or she." Interposed Hermione.

"Whichever," said Ron. "it'd be one less for us to do!"

"Yes, but we're still going to have to try and trace the real locket, aren't we?" said Hermione, "to find out whether or not it's destroyed."

"And once we get hold of it, how do you destroy a Horcrux?" asked Ron.

"Well," said Hermione, "I've been researching that."

"How?" asked Harry. "I didn't think there were any books on Horcruxes in the library?"

"There weren't," said Hermione, who had turned pink. "Dumbledore removed them all, but he didn't destroy them."

Ron sat up straight, wide-eyed.

"How in the name of Merlin's pants have you managed to get your hands on those Horcrux books?"

"It ! It wasn't stealing!" said Hermione, looking from Harry to Ron with a kind of desperation. "They were still library books, even if Dumbledore had taken them off the shelves. Anyway, if he really didn't want anyone to get at them, I'm sure he would have made it much harder to "

"Get to the point!" said Ron.

"Well... it was easy," said Hermione in a small voice. "I just did a Summoning Charm. You know Accio. And they zoomed out of Dumbledore's study window right into the girls' dormitory."

"But when did you do this?" Harry asked, regarding Hermione with a mixture of admiration and incredulity.

"Just after his Dumbledore's funeral," said Hermione in an even smaller voice. "Right after we agreed we'd leave school and go and look for the Horcruxes. When I went back upstairs to get my things it-it just occurred to me that the more we knew about them, the better it would be... and I was alone in there... so I tried... and it worked. They flew straight in through the open window and I packed them."

She swallowed and then said imploringly, "I can't believe Dumbledore would have been angry, it's not as though we're going to use the information to make a Horcrux, is it?"

"Can you hear us complaining?" said Ron. "Where are these books anyway?"

Hermione rummaged for a moment and then extracted from the pile a large volume, bound in faded black leather. She looked a little nauseated and held it as gingerly as if it were something recently dead.

"This is the one that gives explicit instructions on how to make a Horcrux. Secrets of the Darkest Art it's a horrible book, really awful, full of evil magic. I wonder when Dumbledore removed it from the library... if he didn't do it until he was headmaster, I bet Voldemort got all the instruction he needed from here."

"Why did he have to ask Slughorn how to make a Horcrux, then, if he'd already read that?" asked Ron.

"He only approached Slughorn to find out what would happen if you split your soul into seven," said Harry. "Dumbledore was sure Riddle already knew how to make a Horcrux by the time he asked Slughorn about them. I think you're right, Hermione, that could easily have been where he got the information."  
"And the more I've read about them," said Hermione, "the more horrible they seem, and the less I can believe that he actually made six. It warns in this book how unstable you make the rest of your soul by ripping it, and that's just by making one Horcrux!"

Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort moving beyond "usual evil."

"Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?" Ron asked.

"Yes," said Hermione with a hollow smile, "but it would be excruciatingly painful."

"Why? How do you do it?" asked Harry.

"Remorse," said Hermione. "You've got to really feel what you've done. There's a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can destroy you. I can't see Voldemort attempting it somehow, can you?"

"No," said Ron, before Harry could answer. "So does it say how to destroy Horcruxes in that book?"

"Yes," said Hermione, now turning the fragile pages as if examining rotting entrails, "because it warns Dark wizards how strong they have to make the enchantments on them. From all that I've read, what Harry did to Riddle's diary was one of the few really foolproof ways of destroying a Horcrux."

"What, stabbing it with a basilisk fang?" asked Harry.

"Oh well, lucky we've got such a large supply of basilisk fangs, then," said Ron. "I was wondering what we were going to do with them."

"It doesn't have to be a basilisk fang," said Hermione patiently. "It has to be something so destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself. Basilisk venom only has one antidote, and it's incredibly rare "

"phoenix tears," said Harry, nodding.

"Exactly," said Hermione. "Our problem is that there are very few substances as destructive as basilisk venom, and they're all dangerous to carry around with you. That's a problem we're going to have to solve, though, because ripping, smashing, or crushing a Horcrux won't do the trick. You've got to put it beyond magical repair."

"But even if we wreck the thing it lives in," said Ron, "why can't the bit of soul in it just go and live in something else?"

"Because a Horcrux is the complete opposite of a human being."

Seeing that Harry and Ron looked thoroughly confused, Hermione hurried on. "Look, if I picked up a sword right now, Ron, and ran you through with it, I wouldn't damage your soul at all."

"Which would be a real comfort to me, I'm sure," said Ron. Harry laughed.

"It should be, actually! But my point is that whatever happens to your body, your soul will survive, untouched," said Hermione. "But it's the other way round with a Horcrux. The fragment of soul inside it depends on its container, its enchanted body, for survival. It can't exist without it."

"That diary sort of died when I stabbed it," said Harry, remembering ink pouring like blood from the punctured pages, and the screams of the piece of Voldemort's soul as it vanished.

"And once the diary was properly destroyed, the bit of soul trapped in it could no longer exist. Ginny tried to get rid of the diary before you did, flushing it away, but obviously it came back good as new."

"Hang on," said Ron, frowning. "The bit of soul in that diary was possessing Ginny, wasn't it? How does that work, then?"

"While the magical container is still intact, the bit of soul inside it can flit in and out of someone if they get too close to the object. I don't mean holding it for too long, it's nothing to do with touching it," she added before Ron could speak. "I mean close emotionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that diary, she made herself incredibly vulnerable. You're in trouble if you get too fond of or dependent on the Horcrux."

"I wonder how Dumbledore destroyed the ring?" said Harry. "Why didn't I ask him? I never really..."

His voice trailed away: He was thinking of all the things he should have asked Dumbledore, and of how, since the headmaster had died, it seemed to Harry that he had wasted so many opportunities when Dumbledore had been alive, to find out more... to find out everything...

The silence was shattered as the bedroom door flew open with a wall-shaking crash. Juliunna sat up and tumbled out of Ron's bed onto the floor with a wide scream. Hermione shrieked and dropped Secrets of the Darkest Art; Crookshanks streaked under the bed, hissing indignantly; Ron jumped off the bed, skidded on a discarded Chocolate Frog wrapper, and smacked his head on the opposite wall; and Harry instinctively dived for his wand before realizing that he was looking up at Mrs. Weasley, whose hair was disheveled and whose face was contorted with rage.

"I'm so sorry to break up this cozy little gathering," she said, her voice trembling. "I'm sure you all need your rest... but there are wedding presents stacked in my room that need sorting out and I was under the impression that you had agreed to help."

"Oh yes," said Hermione, looking terrified as she leapt to her feet, sending books flying in every direction. "we will... we're sorry..."

With an anguished look at Harry and Ron, Hermione hurried out of the room after Mrs. Weasley.

"it's like being a house-elf," complained Ron in an undertone, still massaging his head as he and Harry followed. "Except without the job satisfaction. The sooner this wedding's over, the happier, I'll be."

"Yeah," said Harry, "then we'll have nothing to do except find Horcruxes... It'll be like a holiday, won't it?"

Ron started to laugh, but at the sight of the enormous pile of wedding presents waiting for them in Mrs. Weasley's room, stopped quite abruptly.

…

The Delacours arrived the following morning at eleven o' clock. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and especially Juliunna were feeling quite resentful toward Fleur's family by this time; and it was with ill grace that Ron stumped back upstairs to put on matching socks, Juliunna brushed her hair for the second time that day, and Harry attempted to flatten his hair. Once they had all been deemed smart enough, they trooped out into the sunny backyard to await the visitors.

Harry had never seen the place looking so tidy. The rusty cauldrons and old Wellington boots that usually littered the steps by the back door were gone, replaced by two new Flutterby bushes standing either side of the door in large pots; though there was no breeze, the leaves waved lazily, giving an attractive rippling effect. The chickens had been shut away, the yard had been swept, and the nearby garden had been pruned, plucked, and generally spruced up, although Harry, who liked it in its overgrown state, thought that it looked rather forlorn without its usual contingent of capering gnomes.

He had lost track of how many security enchantments had been placed upon the Burrow by both the Order and the Ministry; all he knew was that it was no longer possible for anybody to travel by magic directly into the place. Mr. Weasley had therefore gone to meet the Delacours on top of a nearby hill, where they were to arrive by Portkey. The first sound of their approach was an unusually high-pitched laugh, which turned out to be coming from Mr. Weasley, who appeared at the gate moments later, laden with luggage and leading a beautiful blonde woman in long, leaf green robes, who could be Fleur's mother.

"Maman!" cried Fleur, rushing forward to embrace her. "Papa!"

Monsieur Delacour was nowhere near as attractive as his wife; he was a head shorter and extremely plumb, with a little, pointed black beard. However, he looked good-natured. Bouncing towards Mrs. Weasley on high-heeled boots, he kissed her twice on each cheek, leaving her flustered.

"You 'ave been so much trouble," he said in a deep voice. "Fleur tells us you 'ave been working very 'ard."

"Oh, it's been nothing, nothing!" trilled Mrs. Weasley. "No trouble at all!"

Ron relieved his feelings by aiming a kick at a gnome who was peering out from behind one of the new Flutterby bushes.

"Dear lady!" said Monsieur Delacour, still holding Mrs. Weasley's hand between his own two plump ones and beaming. "We are most honored at the approaching union of our two families! Let me present my wife, Apolline."

Madame Delacour glided forward and stooped to kiss Mrs. Weasley too.

"Enchanted," she said. "Your 'husband 'as been telling us such amusing stories!"

Mr. Weasley gave a maniacal laugh; Mrs. Weasley threw him a look, upon which he became immediately silent and assumed an expression appropriate to the sickbed of a close friend.

"And, of course, you 'ave met my leetle daughter, Gabrielle!" said Monsieur Delacour. Gabrielle was Fleur in miniature; eleven years old, with waist-length hair of pure, silvery blonde, she gave Mrs. Weasley a dazzling smile and hugged her, then threw Harry a glowing look, batting her eyelashes. Ginny cleared her throat loudly.

"Well, come in, do!" said Mrs. Weasley brightly, and she ushered the Delacours into the house, with many "No, please!"s and "After you's! and "Not at all's.

The Delacours, it soon transpired, were helpful, pleasant guests. They were pleased with everything and keen to assist with the preparations for the wedding. Monsieur Delacour pronounced everything from the seating plan to the bridesmaids' shoes "Charmant!" Madame Delacour was most accomplished at household spells and had the oven properly cleaned in a trice; Gabrielle followed her elder sister around, trying to assist in any way she could and jabbering away in rapid French.

On the downside, the Burrow was not built to accommodate so many people. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were now sleeping in the sitting room, having shouted down Monsieur and Madame Delacours protests and insisted they take their bedroom. Gabrielle was sleeping with Fleur in Percy's old room, Juliunna with Ginny, and Bill would be sharing with Charlie, his best man, once Charlie arrived from Romania. Opportunities to make plans together became virtually nonexistent, and it was in desperation that Harry, Ron and Hermione took to volunteering to feed the chickens just to escape the overcrowded house.

"But she still won't leave us alone!" snarled Ron, and their second attempt at a meeting in the yard was foiled by the appearance of Mrs. Weasley carrying a large basket of laundry in her arms.

"Oh, good, you've fed the chickens," she called as she approached them. "We'd better shut them away again before the men arrive tomorrow... to put up the tent for the wedding," she explained, pausing to lean against the henhouse. She looked exhausted. "Millamant's Magic Marquees... they're very good. Bill's escorting them... You'd better stay inside while they're here, Harry. I must say it does complicate organizing a wedding, having all these security spells around the place."

"I'm sorry," said Harry humbly.

"Oh, don't be silly, dear!" said Mrs. Weasley at once. "I didn't mean, well, your safety's much more important! Actually, I've been wanting to ask you how you want to celebrate your birthday, Harry. Seventeen, after all, it's an important day..."

"I don't want a fuss," said Harry quickly, envisaging the additional strain this would put on them all. "Really, Mrs. Weasley, just a normal dinner would be fine... It's the day before the wedding..."

"Oh, well, if you're sure, dear. I'll invite Remus and Tonks, shall I? And how about Hagrid?"

"That'd be great," said Harry. "But please, don't go to loads of trouble."

"Not at all, not at all... It's no trouble..."

She looked at him, a long, searching look, then smiled a little sadly, straightened up, and walked away. Harry watched as she waved her wand near the washing line, and the damp clothes rose into the air to hang themselves up, and suddenly he felt a great wave of remorse for the inconvenience and the pain he was giving her.

_He was walking along a mountain road in the cool blue light of dawn. Far below, swathed in mist, was the shadow of a small town. Was the man he sought down there, the man he needed so badly he could think of little else, the man who held the answer, the answer to his problem...?__  
_  
"Oi, wake up."

Harry opened his eyes. He was lying again on the camp bed in Ron's dingy attic room. The sun had not yet risen and the room was still shadowy. Pigwidgeon was asleep with his head under his tiny wing. The scar on Harry's forehead was prickling.

"You were muttering in your sleep."

"Was I?"

"Yeah. 'Gregorovitch.' You kept saying 'Gregorovitch.'"

Harry was not wearing his glasses; Ron's face appeared slightly blurred.

"Who's Gregorovitch?"

"I dunno, do I? You were the one saying it."

Harry rubbed his forehead, thinking. He had a vague idea he had heard the name before, but he could not think where.

"I think Voldemort's looking for him."

"Poor bloke," said Ron fervently.

Harry sat up, still rubbing his scar, now wide awake. He tried to remember exactly what he had seen in the dream, but all that came back was a mountainous horizon and the outline of the little village cradled in a deep valley.

"I think he's abroad."

"Who, Gregorovitch?"

"Voldemort. I think he's somewhere abroad, looking for Gregorovitch. It didn't look like anywhere in Britain."

"You reckon you were seeing into his mind again?"

Ron sounded worried.

"Do me a favor and don't tell Hermione," said Harry. "Although how she expects me to stop seeing stuff in my sleep..."

He gazed up at little Pigwidgeon's cage, thinking...Why was the name "Gregorovitch" familiar?

"I think," he said slowly, "he's got something to do with Quidditch. There's some connection, but I can't.. I can't think what it is."

"Quidditch?" said Ron. "Sure you're not thinking of Gorgovitch?"

"Who?"

"Dragomir Gorgovitch, Chaser, transferred to the Chudley Cannons for a record fee two years ago. Record holder for most Quaffle drops in a season."

"No," said Harry. "I'm definitely not thinking of Gorgovitch."

"I try not to either," said Ron. "Well, happy birthday anyway."

"Wow that's right, I forgot! I'm seventeen!"

Harry seized the wand lying beside his camp bed, pointed it at the cluttered desk where he had left his glasses, and said, "Accio Glasses!" Although they were only around a foot away, there was something immensely satisfying about seeing them zoom toward him, at least until they poked him in the eye.

"Slick," snorted Ron.

Reveling in the removal of his Trace, Harry sent Ron's possessions flying around the room, causing Pigwidgeon to wake up and flutter excitedly around his cage. Harry also tried tying the laces of his trainers by magic (the resultant knot took several minutes to untie by hand) and, purely for the pleasure of it, turned the orange robes on Ron's Chudley Cannons posters bright blue.

"I'd do your fly by hand, though," Ron advised Harry, sniggering when Harry immediately checked it. "Here's your present. Unwrap it up here, it's not for my mother's eyes."

"A book?" said Harry as he took the rectangular parcel. "Bit of a departure from tradition, isn't it?"

"This isn't your average book," said Ron. "It'd pure gold: Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. Explains everything you need to know about girls. If only I'd had this last year I'd have known exactly how to get rid of Lavender and I would've known how to get going with... Well, Fred and George gave me a copy, and I've learned a lot. You'd be surprised, it's not all about wand work, either."

When they arrived in the kitchen they found a pile of presents waiting on the table. Bill, Juliunna, and Monsieur Delacour were finishing their breakfasts, while Mrs. Weasley stood chatting to them over the frying pan.

"Arthur told me to wish you a happy seventeenth, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, beaming at him. "He had to leave early for work, but he'll be back for dinner. That's our present on top."

Harry sat down, took the square parcel she had indicated, and unwrapped it. Inside was a watch very like the one Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had given Ron for his seventeenth; it was gold, with stars circling around the race instead of hands.

"It's traditional to give a wizard a watch when he comes of age," said Mrs. Weasley, watching him anxiously from beside the cooker. "I'm afraid that one isn't new like Ron's, it was actually my brother Fabian's and he wasn't terribly careful with his possessions, it's a bit dented on the back, but…"

The rest of her speech was lost; Harry had got up and hugged her. He tried to put a lot of unsaid things into the hug and perhaps she understood them, because she patted his cheek clumsily when he released her, then waved her wand in a slightly random way, causing half a pack of bacon to flop out of the frying pan onto the floor.

"Happy birthday Harry." Juliunna said, passing him two wrapped up presents. He opened them quickly. One of them was a giant package of chocolate, about the size of a four by four board. The other, shocked him. It was a picture of his parents and him. He was obviously just born. A tiny baby, no taller then a ruler, was in Lily's arms. She was smiling, James had his hand on Lily's shoulder.

"How'd you get this?" He asked, placing the picture in his pocket warmly. He then placed a small kiss on her cheek.

"Memory." She whispered, waving her arms apart with a smirk. He nodded. She obviously wasn't going to tell him the truth, but he thanked her anyway.  
"Happy birthday, Harry!" said Hermione, hurrying into the kitchen and adding her own present to the top of the pile. "It's not much, but I hope you like it. What did you get him?" she added to Ron, who seemed not to hear her.

"Come on, then, open Hermione's!" said Ron.

She had bought him a new Sneakoscope. The other packages contained an enchanted razor from Bill and Fleur ("Ah yes, zis will give you ze smoothest shave you will ever 'ave," Monsieur Delacour assured him, "but you must tell it clearly what you want...ozzerwise you might find you 'ave a leetle less hair zan you would like..."), chocolates from the Delacours, and an enormous box of the latest Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes merchandise from Fred and George.

Harry, Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione did not linger at the table, as the arrival of Madame Delacour, Fleur, and Gabrielle made the kitchen uncomfortably crowded.

"I'll pack these for you," Hermione said brightly, taking Harry's presents out of his arms as the three of them headed back upstairs. "I'm nearly done, I'm just waiting for the rest of your underpants to come out of the wash, Ron.

Ron's splutter was interrupted by the opening of a door on the first-floor landing.

"Harry, will you come in here a moment?"

It was Ginny. Ron came to an abrupt halt, but Hermione and Juliunna took him by the elbow and tugged him on up the stairs. Feeling nervous, Harry followed Ginny into her room. When the door was shut, Ron spun around on the second floor, but Juliunna spread her arms and legs, blocking him from going down them.

"Get out of my way."

"No." Juliunna laughed. "There is no reason that I would oblige to that would let you walk pass me."  
"How about this?" He asked. He lifted his wand and muttered a full body binding curse, she fell backwards. "Ron! Accio!" Hermione shouted, pointing her wand at Juliunna, and Juliunna fell into Hermione's arms. She lifted the curse, but Ron was running down the stairs, they followed him quickly.

"Ron. No-!" Hermione snapped, but Ron flung open the door. Harry and Ginny broke apart abruptly.

There was a strained silence, then Ginny had said in a flat little voice, "Well, happy birthday anyway, Harry." Ron's ears were scarlet; Hermione looked nervous. Juliunna was smirking.

Harry wanted to slam the door in their faces, but it felt as though a cold draft had entered the room when the door opened, and his shining moment had popped like a soap bubble. All the reasons for ending his relationship with Ginny, for staying well away from her, seemed to have slunk inside the room with Ron, and all happy forgetfulness was gone.

He looked at Ginny, wanting to say something, though he hardly knew what, but she had turned her back on him. He thought that she might have succumbed, for once, to tears. He could not do anything to comfort her in front of Ron.

"I'll see you later," he said, and followed the other two out of the bedroom.

Ron marched downstairs, though the still-crowded kitchen and into the yard, and Harry kept pace with him all the way, Hermione and Juliunna trotting along behind them looking scared.

Once they reached the seclusion of the freshly mown lawn, Ron rounded on Harry.

"You ditched her. What are you doing now, messing her around?"

"I'm not messing her around," said Harry, as the girls caught up with them.

"Ron-!"

But Ron held up a hand to silence Juliunna.

"She was really cut up when you ended it-!"

"So was I. You know why I stopped it, and it wasn't because I wanted to."

"Yeah, but you go snogging her now and she's just going to get her hopes up again-!"

"She's not an idiot, she knows it can't happen, she's not expecting us to end up married, or-!"

As he said it, a vivid picture formed in Harry's mind of Ginny in a white dress, marrying a tall, faceless, and unpleasant stranger.

In one spiraling moment it seemed to hit him: Her future was free and unencumbered, whereas his...he could see nothing but Voldemort ahead.

"If you keep groping her every chance you get-!" Ron started, and Juliunna let out a mirth laugh.

"It won't happen again," said Harry harshly. The day was cloudless, but he felt as though the sun had gone in. "Okay?"

Ron looked half resentful, half sheepish; he rocked backward and forward on his feet for a moment, then said, "Right then, well, that's...yeah."

Ginny did not seek another one-to-one meeting with Harry for the rest of the day, nor by any look or gesture did she show that they had shared more than polite conversation in her room. Nevertheless, Charlie's arrival came as a relief to Harry. It provided a distraction, watching Mrs. Weasley force Charlie into a chair, raise her wand threateningly, and announce that he was about to get a proper haircut.

As Harry's birthday dinner would have stretched the Burrow's kitchen to breaking point even before the arrival of Charlie, Lupin, Tonks, and Hagrid, several tables were placed end to end in the garden. Fred and George bewitched a number of purple lanterns all emblazoned with a large number 17, to hang in midair over the guests. Thanks to Mrs. Weasley's ministrations, George's wound was neat and clean, but Harry was not yet used to the dark hole in the side of his head, despite the twins' many jokes about it.

Juliunna made purple and gold streamers erupt from the end of her wand and drape themselves artistically over the trees and bushes.

"Nice," said Ron, as with one final flourish of her wand, Juliunna turned the leaves on the crabapple tree to gold. "You've really got an eye for that sort of thing."

"Thank you, Ron!" Juliunna said, looking both pleased and a little confused. Harry turned away, smiling to himself. He had a funny notion that he would find a chapter on compliments when he found time to peruse his copy of Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches; he caught Ginny's eye and grinned at her before remembering his promise to Ron and hurriedly striking up a conversation with Monsieur Delacour.

"Out of the way, out of the way!" sang Mrs. Weasley, coming through the gate with what appeared to be a giant, beach-ball-sized Snitch floating in front of her. Seconds later Harry realized that it was his birthday cake, which Mrs. Weasley was suspending with her wand, rather than risk carrying it over the uneven ground. When the cake had finally landed in the middle of the table, Harry said, "That looks amazing, Mrs. Weasley."

"Oh, it's nothing, dear," she said fondly. Over her shoulder, Ron gave Harry the thumbs-up and mouthed, 'Good one'.

By seven o'clock all the guests had arrived, led into the house by Fred and George, who had waited for them at the end of the lane. Hagrid had honored the occasion by wearing his best, and horrible, hairy brown suit. Although Lupin smiled as he shook Harry's hand, Harry thought he looked rather unhappy. It was all very odd; Tonks, beside him, looked simply radiant.

"Happy birthday, Harry," she said, hugging him tightly.

"Seventeen, eh!" said Hagrid as he accepted a bucket-sized glass of wine from Fred. "Six years ter the day since we met, Harry, d'yeh remember it?"

"Vaguely," said Harry, grinning up at him. "Didn't you smash down the front door, give Dudley a pig's tail, and tell me I was a wizard?"

"I forge' the details," Hagrid chortled. "All righ', Ron, Hermione?"

"We're fine," said Hermione. "How are you?"

"Ar, not bad. Bin busy, we got some newborn unicorns. I'll show yeh when yeh get back." Harry avoided Ron's and Hermione's gazes as Hagrid rummaged in his pocket. "Here. Harry, I couldn't think what ter get you, but then I remembered this." He pulled out a small, slightly furry drawstring pouch with a long string, evidently intended to be worn around the neck. "Moleskin. Hide anything' in there an' no one but the owner can get it out. They're rare, them."

"Hagrid, thanks!"

"'S'nothin'," said Hagrid with a wave of a dustbin-lid-sized hand. "An' there's Charlie! Always liked him hey! Charlie!"

Charlie approached, running his hand slightly ruefully over his new, brutally short haircut. He was shorter than Ron, thickset, with a number of burns and scratches up his muscled arms.

"Hi, Hagrid, how's it going?"

"Bin meaning' ter write fer ages. How's Norbert doing'?"

"Norbert?" Charlie laughed. "The Norwegian Ridgeback? We call her Norberta now."

"Wha Norbert's a girl?"

"Oh yeah," said Charlie.

"How can you tell?" asked Hermione.

"They're a lot more vicious," said Charlie. He looked over his shoulder and dropped his voice. "Wish Dad would hurry up and get here. Mum's getting edgy."

They all looked over at Mrs. Weasley. She was trying to talk to Madame Delacour while glancing repeatedly at the gate.

"I think we'd better start without Arthur," she called to the garden at large after a moment or two. "He must have been held up at oh!"

They all saw it at the same time: a streak of light that came flying across the yard and onto the table, where it resolved itself into a bright silver weasel, which stood on its hind legs and spoke with Mr. Weasley's voice.

"Minister of Magic coming with me."

The Patronus dissolved into thin air, leaving Fleur's family peering in astonishment at the place where it had vanished.

"We shouldn't be here," said Lupin at once. "Harry I'm sorry I'll explain some other time."

He seized Tonks's wrist and pulled her away; they reached the fence, climbed over it, and vanished from sight. Mrs. Weasley looked bewildered.

"The Minister but why-!? I don't understand."

But there was no time to discuss the matter; a second later, Mr. Weasley had appeared out of thin air at the gate, accompanied by Rufus Scrimgeour, instantly recognizable by his mane of grizzled hair.

The two newcomers marched across the yard toward the garden and the lantern-lit table, where everybody sat in silence, watching them draw closer. As Scrimgeour came within range of the lantern light. Harry saw that he looked much older than the last time that had met, scraggy and grim.

"Sorry to intrude," said Scrimgeour, as he limped to a halt before the table. "Especially as I can see that I am gate crashing a party."

His eyes lingered for a moment on the giant Snitch cake.

"Many happy returns."

"Thanks," said Harry.

"I require a private word with you," Scrimgeour went on. "Also with Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger."

"Us?" said Ron, sounding surprised. "Why us?"

"I shall tell you that when we are somewhere more private," said Scrimgeour. "Is there such a place?" he demanded of Mr. Weasley.

"Yes, of course," said Mr. Weasley, who looked nervous. Juliunna looked back, but nodded. "The, er, sitting room, why don't you use that?"

"You can lead the way," Scrimgeour said to Ron. "There will be no need for you to accompany us, Arthur." He said, and Juliunna's knowing eyes followed them all into the house.

…

"What did he want?" Juliunna asked, looking around at Harry, Ron, and Hermione as Mrs. Weasley came hurrying back to the backyard.

"To give us what Dumbledore left us," said Harry. "They've only just released the content of his will."

Outside in the garden, over the dinner tables, the three objects Scrimgeour had given them were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword, but none of them could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch. As Mr. Weasley examined the Deluminator for the third or fourth time, Mrs. Weasley said tentatively, "Harry, dear, everyone's awfully hungry we didn't like to start without you... Shall I serve dinner now?"

They all ate rather hurriedly and then after a hasty chorus of "Happy Birthday" and much gulping of cake, the party broke up. Hagrid, who was invited to the wedding the following day, but was far too bulky to sleep in the overstretched Burrow, left to set up a tent for himself in a neighboring field.

"Meet us upstairs," Harry whispered to Hermione and Juliunna, while they helped Mrs. Weasley restore the garden to its normal state. "After everyone's gone to bed."

Up in the attic room, Ron examined his Deluminator, and Harry filled Hagrid's moleskin purse, not with gold, but with those items he most prized, apparently worthless though some of them were the Marauder's Map, the shard of Sirius's enchanted mirror, and R.A.B.'s locket. He pulled the string tight and slipped the purse around his neck, then sat holding the old Snitch and watching its wings flutter feebly. At last, Hermione tapped on the door and she and Juliunna tiptoed inside.

"Muffliato," Hermione whispered, waving her wand in the direction of the stairs.

"I thought you didn't approve of that spell?" said Ron.

"Times change," said Hermione. "Now, show us that Deluminator."

Ron obliged at once. Holding I up in front of him, he clicked it. The solitary lamp they had lit went out at once.

"The thing is," whispered Hermione through the dark, "we could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder."

There was a small click, and the ball of light from the lamp flew back to the ceiling and illuminated them all once more.

"Still, it's cool," said Ron, a little defensively. "And from what they said, Dumbledore invented it himself!"

"I know but, surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!"

"I don't know about you guys, but I bet that thing does more then turns on the lights." Juliunna smirked. "And it's a nifty invention." She said, not offering any more explanations. Hermione nodded in thought.

"D'you think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will and examine everything he'd left us?" asked Harry.

"Definitely," said Hermione. "He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that will doesn't explain..."

"... why he couldn't have given us a hint when he was alive?" asked Ron.

"Well, exactly," said Hermione, now flicking through The Tales of Beedle the Bard. "If these things are important enough to pass on right under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have left us a clue... unless he thought it was obvious?"

"Thought wrong, then, didn't he?" said Ron. "I always said he was mental. Brilliant and everything, but cracked. Leaving Harry an old Snitch, what the hell was that about?"

"I've no idea," said Hermione. "When Scrimgeour made you take it, Harry, I was so sure that something was going to happen!"

"Yeah, well," said Harry, his pulse quickened as he raised the Snitch in his fingers. "I wasn't going to try too hard in front of Scrimgeour was I?"

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione. Juliunna sat down and crossed her ankles, her curly hair sitting on either side of her head.

"The Snitch I caught in my first ever Quidditch match?" said Harry. "Don't you remember?"

Hermione looked simply bemused. Ron, however, gasped, pointing frantically from Harry to the Snitch and back again until he found his voice.

"That was the one you nearly swallowed!"

"Exactly," said Harry, and with his heart beating fast, he pressed his mouth to the Snitch.

It did not open. Frustration and bitter disappointment welled up inside him: He lowered the golden sphere, but then Juliunna cried out.

"Writing! There's writing on it, quick, look!" He nearly dropped the Snitch in surprise and excitement. Jules was quite right. Engraved upon the smooth golden surface, where seconds before there had been nothing, were five words written in the thin, slanted handwriting that Harry recognized as Dumbledore's  
_  
__I open at the close.__  
_  
He had barely read them when the words vanished again.

"I open at the close... What's that supposed to mean?"

Hermione and Ron shook their heads, looking blank.

"I open at the close... at the close... I open at the close..."

But no matter how often they repeated the words, with many different inflections, they were unable to wring any more meaning from them.

"And the sword," said Ron finally, when they had at last abandoned their attempts to divine meaning in the Snitch's inscription.

"Why did he want Harry to have the sword?"

"And why couldn't he just have told me?" Harry said quietly. "I was there, it was right there on the wall of his office during all our talks last year! If he wanted me to have it, why didn't he just give it to me then?"

"I know why you need the sword." Juliunna said haughtily. She was fluffing her long, curly hair.

"Why?"

"It's important in your mission." She mentioned, and Ron frowned. "Spit it out."  
"Don't you understand? It's important you find this is through life lessons, better that he doesn't just tell you himself." Juliunna said, smiling. Hermione nodded. "Juliunna that so-! Doesn't make sense!" Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

"We're in a life or death situation. He would just tell us. It must be for a different reason." She said with a frown. Juliunna bit her lip angrily.

"Your gonna bite your words dude." She said, and then leaned back down.

Harry felt as thought he were sitting in an examination with a question he ought to have been able to answer in front of him, his brain slow and unresponsive. Was there something he had missed in the long talks with Dumbledore last year? Ought he to know what it all meant? Had Dumbledore expected him to understand?

"And as for this book." Said Hermione, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard ... I've never even heard of them!"

"You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" said Ron incredulously. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not," said Hermione in surprise. "Do you know them then?"

"Well, of course I do!"

Harry looked up, diverted. The circumstance of Ron having read a book that Hermione had not was unprecedented. Ron, however, looked bemused by their surprise.

"Oh come on! All the old kids' stories are supposed to be Beadle's aren't they? 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune' ... 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot'... 'Babbity Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump'..."

"Excuse me?" said Hermione giggling. "What was the last one?"

"Come off it!" said Ron, looking in disbelief from Harry to Hermione. "You must've heard of Babbity Rabbitty "

"Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!" said Hermione. "We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' and 'Cinderella' "

"What's that, an illness?" asked Ron, making Juliunna snort.

"So these are children's stories?" asked Hermione, bending against over the runes.

"Yeah." Said Ron uncertainly. "I mean, just what you hear, you know, that all these old stories came from Beedle. I dunno what they're like in the original versions."

"But I wonder why Dumbledore thought I should read them?"

Something cracked downstairs.

"Probably just Charlie, now Mum's asleep, sneaking off to regrow his hair," Juliunna said, frowing softly.  
"All the same, we should get to bed," whispered Hermione. "It wouldn't do to oversleep tomorrow." She said with a small smile.

"No," agreed Ron. "A brutal quadruple murder by the bridegroom's mother might put a bit of damper on the wedding. I'll get the light." He said, and Juliunna nodded off the wall. She stood up and followed Hermione to the door. Juliunna looked back, a frown on her face.

And he clicked the Deluminator once more as Hermione and Juliunna left the room.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26:

**Normal Pov**

Three o'clock on the following afternoon found Harry, Ron, Fred and George standing outside the great white marquee in the orchard, awaiting the arrival of the wedding guests. Harry had taken a large dose of Polyjuice Potion and was now the double of a redheaded Muggle boy from the local village, Ottery St. Catchpole, from whom Fred had stolen hairs using a Summoning Charm. The plan was to introduce Harry as "Cousin Barny" and trust to the great number of Weasley relatives to camouflage him.

All four of them were clutching seating plans, so that they could help show people to the right seats. A host of white-robed waiters had arrived an hour earlier, along with a golden jacketed band, and all of these wizards were currently sitting a short distance away under a tree. Harry could see a blue haze of pipe smoke issuing from the spot. Behind Harry, the entrance to the marquee revealed rows and rows of fragile golden chairs set on either side of a long purple carpet. The supporting poles were entwined with white and gold flowers. Fred and George had fastened an enormous bunch of golden balloons over the exact point where Bill and Fleur would shortly become husband and wife. Outside, butterflies and bees were hovering lazily over the grass and hedgerow. Harry was rather uncomfortable. The Muggle boy whose appearance he was affecting was slightly fatter than him and his dress robes felt hot and tight in the full glare of a summer's day.

"When I get married," said Fred, tugging at the collar of his own robes, "I won't be bothering with any of this nonsense. You can all wear what you like, and I'll put a full Body Bird Curse on Mum until it's all over."

"She wasn't too bad this morning, considering," said George. "Cried a bit about Percy not being here, but who wants him. Oh blimey, brace yourselves, here they come, look."

Brightly colored figures were appearing, one by one out of nowhere at the distant boundary of the yard. Within minutes a procession had formed, which began to snake its way up through the garden toward the marquee. Exotic flowers and bewitched birds fluttered on the witches' hats, while precious gems glittered from many of the wizards' cravats; a hum of excited chatter grew louder and louder, drowning the sound of the bees as the crowd approached the tent.

"Excellent, I think I see a few veela cousins," said George, craning his neck for a better look. "They'll need help understanding our English customs, I'll look after them..."

"Not so fast, Your Holeyness," said Fred, and darting past the gaggle of middle-aged witches heading for the procession, he said, "Here permetiez moi to assister vous," to a pair of pretty French girls, who giggled and allowed him to escort them inside. George was left to deal with the middle-aged witches and Ron took charge of Mr. Weasley's old Ministry-colleague Perkins, while a rather deaf old couple fell to Harry's lot. When he came back, his eyes widened. "Malfoy?"

"Sup." Draco said. He was dressed in regular black dress robes. Harry noted while though he was pale and skinny, he was looking better then he did at Hogwarts. "Juliunna's…" Harry looked around. She was sitting with Mrs. Weasley over at the table by the front. "I see her." Draco said. He pushed pass Harry and walked through. No one stopped him as he walked, and to Harry's surprise, he just sat down next to Jules and greeted Mrs. Weasley politely.

"Wotcher," said a familiar voice as he came out of the marquee again and found Tonks and Lupin at the front of the queue. She had turned blonde for the occasion. "Arthur told us you were the one with the curly hair. Sorry about last night," she added in a whisper as Harry led them up the aisle. "The Ministry's being very anti-werewolf at the museum and we thought our presence might not do you any favors." She said. Harry nodded.

"It's fine, I understand," said Harry, speaking more to Lupin than Tonks. Lupin gave him a swift smile, but as they turned away Harry saw Lupin's face fall again into lines of misery. He did not understand it, but there was no time to dwell on the matter. Hagrid was causing a certain amount of disruption. Having misunderstood Fred's directions as he had sat himself, not upon the magically enlarged and reinforced seat set aside for him in the back row, but on five sets that now resembled a large pile of golden matchsticks.

While Mr. Weasley repaired the damage and Hagrid shouted apologies to anybody who would listen, Harry hurried back to the entrance to find Ron face-to-face with a most eccentric-looking wizard. Slightly cross-eyed, with shoulder-length white hair the texture of candy floss, he wore a cap whose tassel dangled in front of his nose and robes of an eye-watering shade of egg-yolk yellow. An odd symbol, rather like a triangular eye, glistened from a golden chain around his neck.

"Xenophilius Lovegood," he said, extending a hand to Harry, "my daughter and I live just over the hill, so kind of the good Weasleys to invite us. But I think you know my Luna?" he added to Ron.

"Yes," said Ron. "Isn't she with you?"

"She lingered in that charming little garden to say hello to the gnomes, such a glorious infestation! How few wizards realize just how much we can learn from the wise little gnomes or, to give them their correct name, the Gernumbli gardensi."

"Ours do know a lot of excellent swear words," said Ron, "but I think Fred and George taught them those."

He led a party of warlocks into the marquee as Luna rushed up.

"Hello, Harry!" she said.

"Er my name's Barry," said Harry, flummoxed.

"Oh, have you changed that too?" she asked brightly.

"How did you know -?"

"Oh, just your expression," she said.

Like her father, Luna was wearing bright yellow robes, which she had accessorized with a large sunflower in her hair. Once you get over the brightness of it all, the general effect was quite pleasant. At least there were no radishes dangling from her ears.

Xenophilius, who was deep in conversation with an acquaintance, had missed the exchange between Luna and Harry. Biding the wizard farewell, he turned to his daughter, who held up her finger and said, "Daddy, look one of the gnomes actually bit me."

"How wonderful! Gnome saliva is enormously beneficial." Said Mr. Lovegood, seizing Luna's outstretched fingers and examining the bleeding puncture marks. "Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today perhaps an unexpected urge to sing opera or to declaims in Mermish do not repress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!"

Ron, passing them in the opposite direction let out a loud snort.

"Ron can laugh," said Luna serenely as Harry led her and Xenophilius toward their seats, "but my father has done a lot of research on Gernumbli magic."

"Really?" said Harry, who had long since decided not to challenge Luna or her father's peculiar views. "Are you sure you don't want to put anything on that bite, though?"

"Oh, it's fine," said Luna, sucking her finger in a dreamy fashion and looking Harry up and down. "You look smart. I told Daddy most people would probably wear dress robes, but he believes you ought to wear sun colors to a wedding, for luck, you know."

As she drifted off after her father, Ron reappeared with an elderly witch clutching his arm. Her beaky nose, red-rimmed eyes, and leathery pink hat gave her the look of a bad-tempered flamingo.

"...and your hair's much too long, Ronald, for a moment I thought you were Ginerva. Merlin's beard, what is Xenophilius Lovegood wearing? He looks like an omelet. And who are you?" she barked at Harry.

"Oh yeah, Auntie Muriel, this is our cousin Barny."

"Another Weasley? You breed like gnomes. Isn't Harry Potter here? I was hoping to meet him. I thought he was a friend of yours, Ronald, or have you merely been boasting?"

"No he couldn't come "

"Hmm. Made an excuse, did he? Not as gormless as he looks in press photographs, then. I've just been instructing the bride on how best to wear my tiara," she shouted at Harry. "Goblin-made, you know, and been in my family for centuries. She's a good-looking girl, but still French. Well, well, find me a good seat, Ronald, I am a hundred and seven and I ought not to be on my feet too long. Ah, there's your mother. Bring me there!" She pointed to Mrs. Weasley.

Ron gave Harry a meaningful look as he passed and did not reappear for some time. When next they met at the entrance, Harry had shown a dozen more people to their places. The Marquee was nearly full now and for the first time there was no queue outside.

"Nightmare, Muriel is," said Ron, mopping his forehead on his sleeve. "She used to come for Christmas every year, then, thank God, she took offense because Fred and George set off a Dungbomb under her chair at diner. Dad always says she'll have written them out of her will, like they care, they're going to end up richer than anyone in the family, rate they're going... Wow," he added, blinking rather rapidly as Hermione came hurrying toward them. "You look great!"

"Always the tone of surprise," said Hermione, though she smiled. She was wearing a floatie, lilac-colored dress with matching high heels; her hair was sleek and shiny. "Your Great-Aunt Muriel doesn't agree, I just met her upstairs while she was giving Fleur the tiara. She said, 'Oh dear, is this the Muggle-born?' and then, 'Bad posture and skinny ankles.'"

"Don't take it personally, she's rude to everyone," said Ron.

"Talking about Muriel?" inquired George, reemerging from the marquee with Fred. "Yeah, she's just told me my ears are lopsided. Old bat. The second she saw Juliunna with Malfoy, she started lavishing over her because she has a 'respectable pureblood boyfriend'. Then she turned on mom with fat free potato chips. Their upstairs now, getting Juliunna dressed in her Maid of honor dress. I wish old Uncle Billius was still with us, though; he was a right laugh at weddings."

"Wasn't he the one who saw a Grim and died twenty-four hours later?" asked Hermione.

"Well, yeah, he went a bit odd toward the end," conceded George.

"But before he went loopy he was the life and soul of the party," said Fred. "He used to down an entire bottle of Firewhisky, then run onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his-!"

"Yes, he sounds a real charmer," said Hermione, while Harry roared with laughter.

"Never married, for some reason," said Ron.

"You amaze me," said Hermione.

They were all laughing so much that none of them noticed the latecomer, a dark-haired young man with a large, curved nose and thick black eyebrows, until he held out his invitation to Ron and said, with his eyes on Hermione, "You look vunderful."

"Viktor!" she shrieked, and dropped her small beaded bag, which made a loud thump quite disproportionate to its size. As she scrambled, blushing, to pick it up, she said "I didn't know you were-! goodness it's lovely to see… how are you?"

Ron's ears had turned bright red again. After glancing at Krum's invitation as if he did not believe a word of it, he said, much too loudly, "how come you're here?"

"Fleur invited me," said Krum, eyebrows raised.

Harry, who had no grudge against Krum, shook hands; then feeling that it would be prudent to remove Krum from Ron's vicinity, offered to show him his seat.

"Your friend is not pleased to see me," said Krum, as they entered the now packed marquee. "Or is he a relative?" he added with a glance at Harry's red curly hair.

"Cousin." Harry muttered, but Krum was not really listening. His appearance was causing a stir, particularly amongst the veela cousins: He was, after all, a famous Quidditch player. While people were still craning their necks to get a good look at him, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George came hurrying down the aisle.

"Time to sit down," Fred told Harry, "or we're going to get run over by the bride."

Harry, Ron and Hermione took their seats in the second row behind Fred and George. Hermione looked rather pink and Ron's ears were still scarlet. After a few moments he muttered to Harry, "Did you see he's grown a stupid little beard?"

Harry gave a noncommittal grunt.

A sense of jittery anticipation had filled the warm tent, the general murmuring broken by occasional spurts of excited laughter. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Juliunna strolled up the aisle, smiling and waving at relatives; Mrs. Weasley was wearing a brand-new set of amethyst colored robes with a matching hat. Juliunna, a black cut out dress decorated with shimming diamonds, and her prized necklace resting against her chest.

A moment later Bill and Charlie stood up at the front of the marquee, both wearing dress robes, with larger white roses in their buttonholes; Fred wolf-whistled and there was an outbreak of giggling from the veela cousins. Then the crowd fell silent as music swelled from what seemed to be the golden balloons.

"Oooh!" said Hermione, swiveling around in her seat to look at the entrance.

A great collective sigh issued from the assembled witches and wizards as Monsieur Delacour and Fleur came walking up the aisle, Fleur gliding, Monsieur Delacour bouncing and beaming. Fleur was wearing a very simple white dress and seemed to be emitting a strong, silvery glow. While her radiance usually dimmed everyone else by comparison, today it beautified everybody it fell upon. Ginny and Gabrielle, both wearing golden dresses, looked even prettier than usual and once Fleur had reached him, Bill did not look as though he had ever met Fenir Greyback.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said a slightly singsong voice, and with a slight shock, Harry saw the same small, tufty-hired wizard who had presided at Dumbledore's funeral, now standing in front of Bill and Fleur. "We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two faithful souls..."

"Yes, my tiara set off the whole thing nicely," said Auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. "But I must say, Genirva's dress is far too low cut."

Ginny glanced around, grinning, winked at Harry, then quickly faced the front again. Harry's mind wandered a long way from the marquee, back to the afternoons spent alone with Ginny in lonely parts of the school grounds. They seemed so long ago; they had always seemed too good to be true, as though he had been stealing shining hours from a normal person's life, a person without a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead...

"Do you, William Arthur, take Fleur Isabelle...?"

In the front row, Mrs. Weasley and Madame Delacour were both sobbing quietly into scraps of lace. Juliunna was resting her head on Draco's shoulder with a smile. Trumpet like sounds from the back of the marquee told everyone that Hagrid had taken out one of his own tablecloth-sized handkerchiefs. Hermione turned around and beamed at Harry; her eyes too were full of tears.

"...then I declare you bonded for life."

The tufty-haired wizard waved his hand high over the heads of Bill and Fleur and a shower of silver stars fell upon them, spiraling around their now entwined figures. As Fred and George led a round of applause, the golden balloons overhead burst. Birds of paradise and tiny golden bells flew and floated out of them, adding their songs and chimes to the din.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" called the tufty-haired wizard. "If you would please stand up!"

They all did so, Auntie Muriel grumbling audibly; he waved his wand again. The chairs on which they had been sitting rose gracefully into the air as the canvas walls of the marquee vanished, so that they stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles, with a glorious view of the sunlit orchard and surrounding countryside. Next, a pool of molten gold spread from the center of the tent to form a gleaming dance floor; the hovering chairs grouped themselves around small, white-clothed tables, which all floated gracefully back to earth round it, and the golden-jacketed hand trooped toward a podium.

"Smooth," said Ron approvingly as the waiters popped up on all sides, some hearing silver trays of pumpkin juice, butterbeer, and Firewhisky, others tottering piles of tarts and sandwiches.

"We should go and congratulate them!" said Hermione, standing on tiptoe to see the place where Bill and Fleur had vanished amid a crowd of well-wishers.

"We'll have time later," shrugged Ron, snatching three butterbeers from a passing tray and handing one to Harry. "Hermione, cop hold, let's grab a table... Not there! Nowhere near Muriel "

Ron led the way across the empty dance floor, glancing left and right as he went; Harry felt sure that he was keeping an eye out for Krum. By the time they had reached the other side of the marquee, most of the tables were occupied: The emptiest was the one where Luna sat alone.

"All right if we join you?" asked Ron.

"Oh yes," she said happily. "Daddy's just gone to give Bill and Fleur our present."

"What is it, a lifetime's supply of Gurdyroots?" asked Ron.

Hermione aimed a kick at him under the table, but caught Harry instead. Eyes watering in pain, Harry lost track of the conversation for a few moments.

The band had begun to play, Bill and Fleur took to the dance floor first, to great applause; after a while, Mr. Weasley led Madame Delacour onto the floor, followed by Mrs. Weasley and Fleur's father, and Juliunna and Malfoy.

"I like this song," said Luna, swaying in time to the waltz like tune, and a few seconds later she stood up and glided onto the dance floor, where she revolved on the spot, quite alone, eyes closed and waving her arms.

"She's great isn't she?" said Ron admiringly. "Always good value."

But the smile vanished from his face at once: Viktor Krum had dropped into Luna's vacant seat. Hermione looked pleasurably flustered but this time Krum had not come to compliment her. With a scowl on his face he said, "Who is that man in the yellow?"

"That's Xenophilius Lovegood, he's the father of a friend of ours," said Ron. His pugnacious tone indicated that they were not about to laugh at Xenophilius, despite the clear provocation. "Come and dance," he added abruptly to Hermione.

She looked taken aback, but pleased too, and got up. They vanished together into the growing throng on the dance floor.

"Ah, they are together now?" asked Krum, momentarily distracted.

"Er sort of," said Harry.

"Who are you?" Krum asked.

"Barny Weasley."

They shook hands.

"You, Barny you know this man Lovegood well?"

"No, I only met him today. Why?"

Krum glowered over the top of his drink, watching Xenophilius, who was chatting to several warlocks on the other side of the dance floor.

"Because," said Krum, "If he vus not a guest of Fleur's I vould dud him, here and now, for veering that filthy sign upon his chest."

"Sign?" said Harry, looking over at Xenophilius too. The strange triangular eye was gleaming on his chest. "Why? What's wrong with it?"

"Grindelwald. That is Grindelwald's sign."

"Grindelwald... the Dark wizard Dumbledore defeated?"

"Exactly."

Krum's jaw muscles worked as if he were chewing, then he said, "Grindelwald killed many people, my grandfather, for instance. Of course, he vos never powerful in this country, they said he feared Dumbledore and rightly, seeing how he vos finished. But this" he pointed a finger at Xenophilius "this is his symbol, I recognized it at vunce: Grindelwald carved it into a vall at Durmstrang ver he vos a pupil there. Some idiots copied it onto their books and clothes thinking to shock, make themselves impressive until those of us who had lost family members to Grindelwald taught them better."

Krum cracked his knuckles menacingly and glowered at Xenophilius. Harry felt perplexed. It seemed incredibly unlikely that Luna's father was a supporter of the Dark Arts, and nobody else in the tent seemed to have recognized the triangular, finlike shape.

"Are you er quite sure it's Grindelwald's -?"

"I am not mistaken," said Krum coldly. "I walked past that sign for several years, I know it vell."

"Well, there's a chance," said Harry, "that Xenophilius doesn't actually know what the symbol means, the Lovegoods are quite... unusual. He could have easily picked it up somewhere and think it's a cross section of the head of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack or something."

"The cross section of a vot?"

"Well, I don't know what they are, but apparently he and his daughter go on holiday looking for them..."

Harry felt he was doing a bad job explaining Luna and her father.

"That's her," he said, pointing at Luna, who was still dancing alone, waving her arms around her head like someone attempting to beat off midges.

"Vy is she doing that?" asked Krum.

"Probably trying to get rid of a Wrackspurt," said Harry, who recognized the symptoms.

Krum did not seem to know whether or not Harry was making fun of him. He drew his hand from inside his robe and tapped it menacingly on his thighs; sparks flew out of the end.

"Gregorovitch!" said Harry loudly, and Krum started, but Harry was too excited to care; the memory had come back to him at the sight of Krum's wand: Ollivanders taking it and examining it carefully before the Triwizard Tournament.

"Vot about him?" asked Krum suspiciously.

"He's a wand maker!"

"I know that," said Krum.

"He made your wand! That's why I thought Quidditch "

Krum was looking more and more suspicious.

"How do you know Gregorovitch made my wand?"

"I...I read it somewhere, I think," said Harry. "In a fan magazine," he improvised wildly and Krum looked mollified.

"I had not realized I ever discussed my vand with fans," he said.

"So... er... where is Gregorovitch these days?"

Krum looked puzzled.

"He retired several years ago. I was one of the last to purchase a Gregorovitch vand. They are the best "Although I know, of course, that your Britons set much store by Ollivanders."

Harry did not answer. He pretended to watch the dancers, like Krum, but he was thinking hard. So Voldemort was looking for a celebrated wand maker and Harry did not have to search far for a reason. It was surely because of what Harry' wand had done on the night that Voldemort pursued him across the skies. The holly and phoenix feather wand had conquered the borrowed wand, some thing that Ollivanders had not anticipated or understood. Would Gregorovitch know better? Was he truly more skilled than Ollivanders, did he know secrets of wands that Ollivanders did not?

"This girl is very nice-looking," Krum said, recalling Harry to his surroundings. Krum was pointing at Ginny, who had just joined Luna. "She is also a relative of yours?"

"Yeah," said Harry, suddenly irritated, "and she's seeing someone. Jealous type. Big bloke. You wouldn't want to cross him."

Krum grunted. "What about that one?" She looks about my type." He asked, pointing at Juliunna. Draco had disappeared by her side, Harry noticed he was at the fruit table, grabbing refreshments. "Boyfriend." Harry said.

"Vot," he said, draining his goblet and getting to his feet again, "is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?"

And he strode off leaving Harry to take a sandwich from a passing waiter and make his way around the edge of the crowded dance floor. He wanted to find Ron, to tell him about Gregorovitch, but he was dancing with Hermione out in the middle of the floor. Harry leaned up against one of the golden pillars and watched Ginny, who was now dancing with Fred and George's friend Lee Jordan, trying not to feel resentful about the promise he had given Ron.

He had never been to a wedding before, so he could not judge how Wizarding celebrations differed from Muggle ones, though he was pretty sure that the latter would not involve a wedding cake topped with two model phoenixes that took flight when the cake was cut, or bottles of champagne that floated unsupported through the crowd. As the evening drew in, and moths began to swoop under the canopy, now lit with floating golden lanterns, the revelry became more and more uncontained. Fred and George had long since disappeared into the darkness with a pair of Fleur's cousins; Charlie, Hagrid, and a squat wizard in a purple porkpie hat were singing "Odo the Hero" in the corner.

Wandering through the crowd so as to escape a drunken uncle of Ron's who seemed unsure whether or not Harry was his son, Harry spotted an old wizard sitting alone at a table. His cloud of white hair made him look rather like an aged dandelion clock and was topped by a moth-eaten fez. He was vaguely familiar: Racking his brains, Harry suddenly realized that this was Elphias Doge, member of the Order of the Phoenix and the writer of Dumbledore's obituary.

Harry approached him.

"May I sit down?"

"Of course, of course," said Doge; he had a rather high-pitched, wheezy voice.

Harry leaned in.

"Mr. Doge, I'm Harry Potter."

Doge gasped.

"My dear boy! Arthur told me you were here, disguised... I am so glad, so honored!"

In a flutter of nervous pleasure Doge poured Harry a goblet of champagne.

"I thought of writing to you," he whispered, "after Dumbledore... the shock... and for you, I am sure..."

Doge's tiny eyes filled with sudden tears.

"I saw the obituary you wrote for the Daily Prophet," said Harry. "I didn't realize you knew Professor Dumbledore so well."

"As well as anyone," said Doge, dabbing his eyes with a napkin. "Certainly I knew him longest, if you don't count Aberforth and somehow, people never do seem to count Aberforth."

"Speaking of the Daily Prophet... I don't know whether you saw, Mr. Doge -?"

"Oh, please call me Elphias, dear boy."

"Elphias, I don't know whether you saw the interview Rita Skeeter gave about Dumbledore?"

Doge's face flooded with angry color.

"Oh yes, Harry, I saw it. That woman, or vulture might be a more accurate term, positively pestered me to talk to her, I am ashamed to say that I became rather rude, called her an interfering trout, which resulted, as you my have seen, in aspersions cast upon my sanity."

"Well, in that interview," Harry went on, "Rita Skeeter hinted that Professor Dumbledore was involved in the Dark Arts when he was young."

"Don't believe a word of it!" said Doge at once. "Not a word, Harry! Let nothing tarnish your memories of Albus Dumbledore!"

Harry looked into Doge's earnest, pained face, and felt, not reassured, but frustrated. Did Doge really think it was that easy, that Harry could simply choose not to believe? Didn't Doge understand Harry's need to be sure, to know everything?

Perhaps Doge suspected Harry's feelings, for he looked concerned and hurried on, "Harry, Rita Skeeter is a dreadful "

But he was interrupted by a shrill cackle.

"Rita Skeeter? Oh, I love her, always read her!"

Harry and Doge looked up to see Auntie Muriel standing there, the plumes dancing on her hair, a goblet of champagne in her hand. "She's written a book about Dumbledore, you know!"

"Hello, Muriel," said Doge, "Yes, we were just discussing "

"You there! Give me your chair, I'm a hundred and seven!" ]

Another redheaded Weasley cousin jumped off his seat, looking alarmed, and Auntie Muriel swung it around with surprising strength and plopped herself down upon it between Doge and Harry.

"Hello again, Barry or whatever your name is," she said to Harry, "Now what were you saying about Rita Skeeter, Elphias? You know, she's written a biography of Dumbledore? I can't wait to read it. I must remember to place an order at Flourish and Blotts!"

Doge looked stiff and solemn at this but Auntie Muriel drained her goblet and clicked her bony fingers at a passing waiter for a replacement. She took another large gulp of champagne, belched and then said, "There's no need to look like a pair of stuffed frogs! Before he became so respected and respectable and all that tosh, there were some mighty funny rumors about Albus!"

"Ill-informed sniping," said Doge, turning radish-colored again.

"You would say that, Elphias," cackled Auntie Muriel. "I noticed how you skated over the sticky patches in that obituary of yours!"

"I'm sorry you think so," said Doge, more coldly still. "I assure you I was writing from the heart."

"Oh, we all know you worshipped Dumbledore; I daresay you'll still think he was a saint even if it does turn out that he did away with his Squib sister!"

"Muriel!" exclaimed Doge.

A chill that had nothing to do with the iced champagne was stealing through Harry's chest.

"What do you mean?" he asked Muriel. "Who said his sister was a Squib? I thought she was ill?"

"Thought wrong, then, didn't you, Barry!" said Auntie Muriel, looking delighted at the effect she had produced. "Anyway, how could you expect to know anything about it! It all happened years and years before you were even thought of, my dear, and the truth is that those of us who were alive then never knew what really happened. That's why I can't wait to find out what Skeeter's unearthed! Dumbledore kept that sister of his quiet for a long time!"

"Untrue!" wheezed Doge, "Absolutely untrue!"

"He never told me his sister as a Squib," said Harry, without thinking, still cold inside.

"And why on earth would he tell you?" screeched Muriel, swaying a little in her seat as she attempted to focus upon Harry.

"The reason Albus never spoke about Ariana," began Elphias in a voice stiff with emotion, "is, I should have thought, quite clear. He was so devastated by her death "

"Why did nobody ever see her, Elphias?" squawked Muriel, "Why did half of us never even know she existed, until they carried the coffin out of the house and held a funeral for her? Where was saintly Albus while Ariana was locked in the cellar? Off being brilliant at Hogwarts, and never mind what was going on in his own house!"

"What d'you mean, locked in the cellar?" asked Harry. "What is this?"

Doge looked wretched. Auntie Muriel cackled again and answered Harry.

"Dumbledore's mother was a terrifying woman, simply terrifying. Muggle-born, though I heard she pretended otherwise-"

"She never pretended anything of the sort! Kendra was a fine woman," whispered Doge miserably, but Auntie Muriel ignored him.

"- proud and very domineering, the sort of witch who would have been mortified to produce a Squib-"

"Ariana was not a Squib!" wheezed Doge.

"So you say, Elphias, but explain, then, why she never attended Hogwarts!" said Auntie Muriel. She turned back to Harry. "In our day, Squibs were often hushed up, thought to take it to the extreme of actually imprisoning a little girl in the house and pretending she didn't exist "

"I tell you, that's not what happened!" said Doge, but Auntie Muriel steamrollered on, still addressing Harry.

Squibs were usually shipped off to Muggle schools and encouraged to integrate into the Muggle community... much kinder than trying to find them a place in the Wizarding world, where they must always be second class, but naturally Kendra Dumbledore wouldn't have dreamed of letting her daughter go to a Muggle school

"Ariana was delicate!" said Doge desperately. "Her health was always too poor to permit her "

"- to permit her to leave the house?" cackled Muriel. "And yet she was never taken to St. Mungo's and no Healer was ever summoned to see her!"

"Really, Muriel, how can you possibly know whether "

"For your information, Elphias, my cousin Lancelot was a Healer at St. Mungo's at the time, and he told my family in strictest confidence that Ariana had never been seen there. All most suspicious, Lancelot thought!"

Doge looked to be on the verge of tears. Auntie Muriel, who seemed to be enjoying herself hugely, snapped her fingers for more champagne. Numbly Harry thought of how the Dursleys had once shut him up, locked him away, kept him out of sight, all for the crime of being a wizard. Had Dumbledore's sister suffered the same fate in reverse: imprisoned for her lack of magic? And had Dumbledore truly left her to her fate while he went off to Hogwarts to prove himself brilliant and talented?

"Now, if Kendra hadn't died first," Muriel resumed, "I'd have said that it was she who finished off Ariana "

"How can you, Muriel!" groaned Doge. "A mother kill her own daughter? Think what you're saying!"

"If the mother in question was capable of imprisoning her daughter for years on end, why not?" shrugged Auntie Muriel. "But as I say, it doesn't fit, because Kendra died before Ariana of what, nobody ever seemed sure-"

"Yes, Ariana might have made a desperate bid for freedom and killed Kendra in the struggle," said Auntie Muriel thoughtfully. "Shake your head all you like, Elphias. You were at Ariana's funeral, were you not?"

"Yes I was," said Doge, through trembling lips, "and a more desperately sad occasion I cannot remember. Albus was heartbroken-"

"His heart wasn't the only thing. Didn't Aberforth break Albus' nose halfway through the service?"

If Doge had looked horrified before this, it was nothing to how he looked now. Muriel might have stabbed him. She cackled loudly and took another swig of champagne, which dribbled down her chin.

"How do you -?" croaked Doge.

"My mother was friendly with old Bathilda Bagshot," said Auntie Muriel happily. "Bathilda described the whole thing to mother while I was listening at the door. A coffin-side brawl. The way Bathilda told it, Aberforth shouted that it was all Albus' fault that Ariana was dead and then punched him in the face. According to Bathilda, Albus did not even defend himself, and that's odd enough in itself. Albus could have destroyed Aberforth in a duel with both hands tied behind his back."

Muriel swigged yet more champagne. The recitation of those old scandals seemed to elate her as much as they horrified Doge. Harry did not know what to think, what to believe. He wanted the truth and yet all Doge did was sit there and bleat feebly that Ariana had been ill. Harry could hardly believe that Dumbledore would not have intervened if such cruelty was happening inside his own house, and yet there was undoubtedly something odd about the story.

"And I'll tell you something else," Muriel said, hiccupping slightly as she lowered her goblet. "I think Bathilda has spilled the beans to Rita Skeeter. All those hints in Skeeter's interview about an important source close to the Dumbledore's goodness knows she was there all through the Ariana business, and it would fit!"

"Bathilda, would never talk to Rita Skeeter!" whispered Doge.

"Bathilda Bagshot?" Harry said. "The author of A History of Magic?"

The name was printed on the front of one of Harry's textbooks, though admittedly not one of the ones he had read more attentively.

"Yes," said Doge, clutching at Harry's question like a drowning man at a life heir. "A most gifted magical historian and an old friend of Albus's."

"Quite gaga these days, I've heard," said Auntie Muriel cheerfully.

"If that is so, it is even more dishonorable for Skeeter to have taken advantage of her," said Doge, "and no reliance can be placed on anything Bathilda may have said!"

"Oh, there are ways of bringing back memories, and I'm sure Rita Skeeter knows them all," said Auntie Muriel "But even if Bathilda's completely cuckoo, I'm sure she'd still have old photographs, maybe even letters. She knew the Dumbledores for years... Well worth a trip to Godric's Hollow, I'd have thought."

Harry, who had been taking a sip of butterbeer, choked. Doge banged him on the back as Harry coughed, looking at Auntie Muriel through streaming eyes. Once he had control of his voice again, he asked, "Bathilda Bagshot lives in Godric's Hollow?"

"Oh yes, she's been there forever! The Dumbledores moved there after Percival was imprisoned, and she was their neighbor."

"The Dumbledores lived in Godric's Hollows?"

"Yes, Barry, that's what I just said," said Auntie Muriel testily.  
Harry felt drained, empty. Never once, in six years, had Dumbledore told Harry that they had both lived and lost loved ones in Godric's Hollow. Why? Were Lily and James buried close to Dumbledore's mother and sister? Had Dumbledore visited their graves, perhaps walked past Lily's and James's to do so? And he had never once told Harry ... never bothered to say...

And why it was so important, Harry could not explain even to himself, yet he felt it had been tantamount to a lie not to tell him that they had this place and these experiences in common. He stared ahead of him, barely noticing what was going on around him, and did not realize that Hermione had appeared out of the crowd until she drew up a chair beside him.

"I simply can't dance anymore," she panted, slipping of one of her shoes and rubbing the sole of her foot. "Ron's gone looking to find more butterbeers. It's a bit odd. I've just seen Viktor storming away from Luna's father, it looked like they'd been arguing." She dropped her voice, staring at him. "Harry, are you okay?"

Harry did not know where to begin, but it did not matter, at that moment, something large and silver came falling through the canopy over the dance floor. Graceful and gleaming, the lynx landed lightly in the middle of the astonished dancers. Heads turned, as those nearest it froze absurdly in mid-dance. Then the Patronus's mouth opened wide and it spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"The Ministry of Magic has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming. They are coming."

Everything seemed fuzzy, slow. Harry and Hermione jumped to their feet and drew their wands. Many people were only just realizing that something strange had happened; heads were still turning toward the silver cat as it vanished. Silence spread outward in cold ripples from the place where the Patronus had landed. Then somebody screamed.

Harry and Hermione threw themselves into the panicking crowd. Guests were sprinting in all directions; many were Disapparating; the protective enchantments around the Burrow had broken.

"Ron!" Hermione cried. "Ron, where are you?"

As they pushed their way across the dance floor, Harry saw cloaked and masked figures appearing in the crowd; then he saw Lupin and Tonks, their wands raised, and heard both of them shout, "Protego!", a cry that was echoed on all sides.

"Ron! Ron!" Hermione called, half sobbing as she and Harry were buffered by terrified guests: Harry seized her hand to make sure they weren't separated as a streak of light whizzed over their heads, whether a protective charm or something more sinister he did not know.

And then Ron was there. He caught hold of Hermione's free arm. "Wait." Harry said. Not too far, standing in front of them were Draco and Juliunna. Malfoy met his eyes, and nodded once. He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Juliunna's forehead and closed his eyes. He pushed Juliunna hard, and then she was running for them. The second her arms wrapped around Harry's sides, Harry felt Hermione turn on the spot; sight and sound were extinguished as darkness pressed in upon him; all he could feel was Hermione's hand and Juliunna's arms as he was squeezed through space and time, away from the Burrow, away from the descending Death Eaters, away, perhaps, from Voldemort himself...

"Where are we?" said Ron's voice.

Harry opened his eyes. For a moment he thought they had not left the wedding after all; They still seemed to be surrounded by people.

"Tottenham Court Road," panted Hermione. "Walk, just walk, we need to find somewhere for you to change."

Harry did as she asked. They half walked, half ran up the wide dark street thronged with late-night revelers and lined with closed shops, stars twinkling above them. A double-decker bus rumbled by and a group of merry pub-goers ogled them as they passed; Harry and Ron were still wearing dress robes.

"Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into," Ron told her, as a young woman burst into raucous giggles at the sight of him.

"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me?" said Harry, inwardly cursing his own stupidity. "All last year I kept it on me and "

"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for both of you," Juliunna said, "Just try and act naturally until this will do."

She led them down a side street, then into the shelter of a shadowy alleyway.

"When you say you've got the Cloak, and clothes..." said Harry, frowning at Juliunna, who was carrying nothing except her small beaded handbag, in which she was now rummaging.

"Yes, they're here," said Hermione, and to Harry and Ron's utter astonishment, Juliunna pulled out a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, some maroon socks, and finally the silvery Invisibility Cloak. She passed the bag to Hermione.

"How the ruddy hell-!?"

"Undetectable Extension Charm," said Hermione. "Tricky, but I think I've done it okay; anyway, I managed to fit everything we need in here." She gave the fragile-looking bag a little shake and it echoed like a cargo hold as a number of heavy objects rolled around inside it. "Oh, damn, that'll be the books," she said, peering into it, "and I had them all stacked by subject... Oh well... Harry, you'd better take the Invisibility Cloak. Ron, hurry up and change..."

"When did you do all this?" Harry asked as Ron stripped off his robes.

"I told you at the Burrow, Juliunna and I had the essentials packed for days, you know, in case we needed to make a quick getaway. I packed your rucksack this morning, Harry, after you changed, and put it in here... I just had a feeling..."

"You're both amazing, you are," said Ron, handing her his bundled-up robes.

"Thank you," said Hermione, "Yeah, thanks." Juliunna smirked. Hermione managed a small smile as she pushed the robes into the bag. "Please, Harry, get that Cloak on!"

Harry threw his Invisibility Cloak around his shoulders and pulled it up over his head, vanishing from sight. He was only just beginning to appreciate what had happened.

"The others, everybody at the wedding " He said, and Juliunna frowned.

"We can't worry about that now," whispered Hermione. "It's you they're after, Harry, and we'll just put everyone in even more danger by going back."

"She's right," said Ron, who seemed to know that Harry was about to argue, even if he could not see his face. "Most of the Order was there, they'll look after everyone."

Harry nodded, then remembered that they could not see him, and said, "Yeah." But he thought of Ginny, and fear bubbled like acid in his stomach.

"Come on, I think we ought to keep moving," Juliunna said.

They moved back up the side street and onto the main road again, where a group of men on the opposite side was singing and weaving across the pavement.

"Just as a matter of interest, why Tottenham Court Road?" Ron asked Hermione.

"I've no idea, it just popped into my head, but I'm sure we're safer out in the Muggle world, it's not where they'll expect us to be."

"True," said Ron, looking around, "but don't you feel a bit exposed?"

"Where else is there?" asked Hermione, cringing as the men on the other side of the road started wolf-whistling at her. "We can hardly book rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, can we? And Grimmauld Place is out if Snape can get in there... I suppose we could try my parents' home, though I think there's a chance they might check there... Oh, I wish they'd shut up!"

"All right, ladies?" the drunkest of the men on the other pavement was yelling. "Fancy a drink? Ditch ginger and come and have a pint!"

"Let's sit down somewhere," Hermione said hastily as Ron opened his mouth to shout back across the road. Juliunna covered her chest with her arms out of disgust. "Look, this will do, in here!"

It was a small and shabby all-night café. A light layer of grease lay on all the Formica-topped tables, but it was at least empty. Harry slipped into a booth first and Ron sat next to him opposite Hermione and Juliunna, who had their back to the entrance and did not like it: Hermione glanced over her shoulder so frequently she appeared to have a twitch. Harry did not like being stationary; walking had given the illusion that they had a goal. Beneath the Cloak he could feel the last vestiges of Polyjuice leaving him, his hands returning to their usual length and shape. He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and put them on again.

After a minute or two, Ron said, "You know, we're not far from the Leaky Cauldron here, it's only in Charing Cross "

"Ron, we can't!" said Hermione at once.

"Not to stay there, but to find out what's going on!"

"We know what's going on! Voldemort's taken over the Ministry, what else do we need to know?"

"Okay, okay, it was just an idea!"

They relapsed into a prickly silence. The gum-chewing waitress shuffled over and Hermione ordered three cappuccinos: As Harry was invisible, it would have looked odd to order him one. A pair of burly workmen entered the cafe and squeezed into the next booth. Hermione dropped her voice to a whisper.

"I say we find a quiet place to Disapparate and head for the countryside. Once we're there, we could send a message to the Order."

"Can you do that talking Patronus thing, then?" asked Ron.

"No, but Juliunna can." She said, and Juliunna nodded, sipping her cappuccino softly.

"Well, as long as it doesn't get them into trouble, though they might've been arrested already. God, that's revolting," Ron added after one sip of the foamy, grayish coffee. The waitress had heard; she shot Ron a nasty look as she shuffled off to take the new customers' orders. The larger of the two workmen, who was blond and quite huge, , waved her away. She stared, affronted.

"Let's get going, then, I don't want to drink this muck," said Ron. "Hermione, have you got Muggle money to pay for this?"

"Yes, I took out all my Building Society savings before I came to the Burrow. I'll bet all the change is at the bottom," sighed Hermione, reaching for her beaded bag.

The two workmen made identical movements, and Harry mirrored them without conscious thought: All three of them drew their wands. Ron, a few seconds late in realizing what was going on, lunged across the table, pushing Hermione and grabbing Juliunna's dress front, dragging them sideways onto the bench. The force of the Death Eaters' spells shattered the tiled wall where Ron's head had just been, as Harry, still invisible, yelled, "Stupefy!"

The great blond Death Eater was hit in the face by a jet of red light: He slumped sideways, unconscious. His companion, unable to see who had cast the spell, fired another at Ron: Shining black ropes flew from his wand-tip and bound Ron head to foot the waitress screamed and ran for the door. Harry sent another Stunning Spell at the Death Eater with the twisted face who had tied up Ron, but the spell missed, rebounded on the window, and hit the waitress, who collapsed in front of the door.

"Expulso!" bellowed the Death Eater, and the table behind which Harry was standing blew up: The force of the explosion slammed him into the wall and he felt his wand leave his hand as the Cloak slipped off him. "Ah!" Juliunna screamed as her ankles were suddenly bounded. She flew back and hit her head hard on the wall.

"Petrificus Totalus!" screamed Hermione from out of sight, and the Death Eater fell forward like a statue to land with a crunching thud on the mess of broken china, table, and coffee. Hermione crawled out from underneath the bench, shaking bits of glass ashtray out of her hair and trembling all over.

"D-Diffindo," she said, pointing her wand at Ron, who roared in pain as she slashed open the knee of his jeans, leaving a deep cut. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Ron, my hand's shaking! Diffindo!"

The severed ropes fell away. Ron got to his feet, shaking his arms to regain feeling in them. Harry picked up his wand and climbed over all the debris to where the large blond Death Eater was sprawled across the bench. They helped Juliunna up and sliced open the rope on her ankle, where she proceeded to rub her head.

"I should've recognized him, he was there the night Dumbledore died," Harry said. He turned over the darker Death Eater with his foot; the man's eyes moved rapidly between Harry, Ron and Hermione. Juliunna was lurking out of sight.

"That's Dolohov," said Ron. "I recognize him from the old wanted posters. I think the big one's Thorfinn Rowle."

"Never mind what they're called!" said Hermione a little hysterically. "How did they find us? What are we going to do?"

Somehow her panic seemed to clear Harry's head.

"Lock the door," he told her, "and Ron, turn out the lights."

He looked down at the paralyzed Dolohov, thinking fast as the lock clicked and Ron used the Deluminator to plunge the cafe into darkness. Harry could hear the men who had jeered at Hermione and Juliunna earlier, yelling at another girl in the distance.

"What are we going to do with them?" Juliunna whispered to Harry through the dark; then, even more quietly, "Kill them? They'd kill us. They had a good go just now."

Hermione shuddered and took a step backward. Harry shook his head.

"We just need to wipe their memories," said Harry. "It's better like that, it'll throw them off the scent. If we killed them it'd be obvious we were here."

"You're the boss," said Ron, sounding profoundly relieved. "But I've never done a Memory Charm."

"Nor have I," said Hermione, "but I know the theory."

She took a deep, calming breath, then pointed her wand at Dolohov's forehead and said, "Obliviate."

At once, Dolohov's eyes became unfocused and dreamy.

"Brilliant!" said Harry, clapping her on the back. "Take care of the other one and the waitress while Ron and I clear up."

"Clear up?" said Ron, looking around at the partly destroyed café. "Why?"

"Don't you think they might wonder what's happened if they wake up and find themselves in a place that looks like it's just been bombed?"

"Oh right, yeah..."

Ron struggled for a moment before managing to extract his wand from his pocket.

"It's no wonder I can't get it out, Hermione, you packed my old jeans, they're tight."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," hissed Hermione, and as she dragged the waitress out of sight of the windows, Harry heard her mutter a suggestion as to where Ron could stick his wand instead.

"Juliunna, are you okay? Harry asked. Juliunna looked worried. "Um… I lied about my age." She said nervously. "What?" Ron asked.

"I don't become of age until March. That's why I couldn't defend myself." She said with a frown.

"Oh my goodness." Hermione said. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I was ashamed." Juliunna whined. Harry sighed. Juliunna didn't say anything, so he turned back to the cafe and raised his wand.

Once the cafe was restored to its previous condition, they heaved the Death Eaters back into their booth and propped them up facing each other. "But how did they find us?" Hermione asked, looking from one inert man to the other. "How did they know where we were?"

She turned to Harry.

"You-you don't think you've still got your Trace on you, do you, Harry?"

"He can't have," said Ron. "The Trace breaks at seventeen, that's Wizarding law, you can't put it on an adult."

"As far as you know," said Hermione. "What if the Death Eaters have found a way to put it on a seventeen-year-old?"

"But Harry hasn't been near a Death Eater in the last twenty-four hours. Who's supposed to have put a Trace back on him?" Juliunna said.

Hermione did not reply. Harry felt contaminated, tainted: Was that really how the Death Eaters had found them?

"If I can't use magic, and you can't use magic near me, without us giving away our position " he began.

"We're not splitting up!" said Hermione firmly.

"We need a safe place to hide," said Ron. "Give us time to think things through." He said softly, thinking hard.

"Grimmauld Place," said Harry.

The other two gasped. Juliunna smirked.

"Don't be silly, Harry, Snape can get in there!" Hermione said, and Juliunna held up a hand.

"Ron's dad said they've put up jinxes against him and even if they haven't worked," She pressed on as Hermione began to argue "so what? I swear, I'd like nothing better than to meet Snape!"

"But " Hermione started quickly, making Juliunna put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hermione, where else is there? It's the best chance we've got. Severus Snape's only one Death Eater. If Harry's still got the Trace on him, we'll have whole crowds of them on us wherever else we go."

She could not argue, though she looked as if she would have liked to. While she unlocked the café door, Ron clicked the Deluminator to release the café's light. Then, on Harry's count of three, they reversed the spells upon their three victims, and before the waitress or either of the Death Eaters could do more than stir sleepily, Harry, Juliunna, Ron and Hermione had turned on the spot and vanished into the compressing darkness once more. 


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27:

**Normal Pov**

Seconds later, Harry's lungs expanded gratefully and he opened his eyes: They were now standing in the middle of a familiar small and shabby square. Tall, dilapidated houses looked down on them from every side. Number twelve was visible to them, for they had been told of its existence by Dumbledore, its Secret-Keeper, and they rushed toward it, checking every few yards that they were not being followed or observed. They raced up the stone steps, and Harry tapped the front door once with his wand. They heard a series of metallic clicks and the clatter of a chain, then the door swung open with a creak and they hurried over the threshold.

As Harry closed the door behind them, the old-fashioned gas lamps sprang into life, casting flickering light along the length of the hallway. It looked just as Harry remembered it: eerie, cobwebbed, the outlines of the house-elf heads on the wall throwing odd shadows up the staircase. Long dark curtains concealed the portrait of Sirius's mother. The only thing that was out of place was the troll's leg umbrella stand, which was lying on its side as if Tonks had just knocked it over again.

"I think somebody's been in here," Hermione whispered, pointing toward it.

"That could've happened as the Order left," Ron murmured back.

"So where are these jinxes they put up against Snape?" Harry asked.

"Maybe they're only activated if he shows up?" suggested Ron.

Yet they remained close together on the doormat, backs against the door, scared to move farther into the house. Juliunna was motionless, her knowing eyes darting across the hall.

"Well, we can't stay here forever," said Harry, and he took a step forward.

"Severus Snape?" Came a whisper.

Mad-Eye Moody's voice whispered out of the darkness, making all three of them jump back in fright. "We're not Snape!" croaked Harry, before something whooshed over him like cold air and his tongue curled backward on itself, making it impossible to speak. Before he had time to feel inside his mouth, however, his tongue had unraveled again.

The other three seemed to have experienced the same unpleasant sensation. Ron was making retching noises; Hermione stammered, "That m-must have b-been the T-Tongue-Tying Curse Mad-Eye set up for Snape!"

Gingerly Harry took another step forward. Something shifted in the shadows at the end of the hall, and before any of them could say another word, a figure had risen up out of the carpet, tall, dust-colored, and terrible; Hermione screamed and so did Mrs. Black, her curtains flying open; the gray figure was gliding toward them, faster and faster, its waist-length hair and beard streaming behind it, its face sunken, fleshless, with empty eye sockets: Horribly familiar, dreadfully altered, it raised a wasted arm, pointing at Harry.

"No!" Harry shouted, and though he had raised his wand no spell occurred to him. "No! It wasn't us! We didn't kill you "

On the word kill, the figure exploded in a great cloud of dust: Coughing, his eyes watering, Harry looked around to see Hermione crouched on the floor, by the door with her arms over her head, and Ron, who was shaking from head to foot, patting her clumsily on the shoulder and saying, "It's all r-right... It's g-gone..."

Dust swirled around Harry like mist, catching the blue gaslight, as Mrs. Black continued to scream.

"Mudbloods, filth, stains of dishonor, taint of shame on the house of my fathers "

**"SHUT UP!"** Harry bellowed, directing his wand at her, and with a bang and a burst of red sparks, the curtains swung shut again, silencing her.

"That... that was..." Hermione whimpered, as Ron helped her to her feet.

"Yeah," said Harry, "but it wasn't really him, was it? Just something to scare Snape."

"Yep." Juliunna said, popping her lips.

Had it worked, Harry wondered, or had Snape already blasted the horror-figure aside as casually as he had killed the real Dumbledore? Nerves still tingling, he led the other two up the hall, half-expecting some new terror to reveal itself, but nothing moved except for a mouse skittering along the skirting board.

"Before we go any farther, I think we'd better check," whispered Hermione, and she raised her wand and said, "Homenum revelio."

Nothing happened.

"Well, you've just had a big shock," said Ron kindly. "What was that supposed to do?"

"It did what I meant it to do!" said Hermione rather crossly. "That was a spell to reveal human presence, and there's nobody here except us!"

"And old Dusty," said Ron, glancing at the patch of carpet from which the corpse-figure had risen.

"Let's go up," said Hermione with a frightened look at the same spot, and she led the way up the creaking stairs to the drawing room on the first floor.

Hermione waved her wand to ignite the old gas lamps, then, shivering slightly in the drafty room, she perched on the sofa, her arms wrapped tightly around her. Ron crossed to the window and moved the heavy velvet curtains aside an inch.

"Can't see anyone out there," he reported. "And you'd think, if Harry still had a Trace on him, they'd have followed us here. I know they can't get in the house, but what's up, Harry?"

Harry had given a cry of pain: His scar had burned against as something flashed across his mind like a bright light on water. He saw a large shadow and felt a fury that was not his own pound through his body, violent and brief as an electric shock.

"What did you see?" Ron asked, advancing on Harry. "Did you see him at my place?"

"No, I just felt anger he's really angry "

"But that could be at the Burrow," said Ron loudly. "What else? Didn't you see anything? Was he cursing someone?"

"No, I just felt anger. I couldn't tell-"

Harry felt badgered, confused, and Hermione did not help as she said in a frightened voice, "Your scar, again? But what's going on? I thought that connection had closed!"

"It did, for a while," muttered Harry; his scar was still painful, which made it hard to concentrate. "I think it's started opening again whenever he loses control, that's how it used to "

"But then you've got to close your mind!" said Hermione shrilly. "Harry, Dumbledore didn't want you to use that connection, he wanted you to shut it down, that's why you were supposed to use Ocullamancy! Otherwise Voldemort can plant false images in your mind, remember?"

"Hermione!" Juliunna snapped. She sat down on the couch next to Harry. "Dumbledore said himself that Voldemort was aware of the connection. I think we can be safe that Voldemort's not going to use this anytime soon. There's not much he can do now." She said.

"But he can lure him out with someone he cares about-!"

"Harry," Juliunna said, ignoring Hermione. "I know the reason that your Occumalacy failed with Snape. You were under pressure, you had hateful feelings inside you and you had no drive to complete those lessons-!"

"I tried-!"

"You tried to get it over with as fast as you can. You tried for short periods of time. If you wait until March 1st, when I can do magic, then I can further your studies in that area. I studied it, and Draco knows a lot of it. He taught me how to do it last year." She said.

"Oh you can do that too?"

"Yep." She shrugged. "Now that you have a competent teacher, I can close your mind to it. But something tells me we'd need it." She said.

"He doesn't need it." Hermione snarled, sitting forward. "Your sure you can teach him?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm sure we have a chance." Juliunna said carefully. Harry sighed. "Alright.

He turned his back on Ron and Hermione, pretending to examine the old tapestry of the Black family tree on the wall. Then Hermione shrieked: Harry drew his wand again and spun around to see a silver Patronus soar through the drawing room window and land upon the floor in front of them, where it solidified into the weasel that spoke with the voice of Ron's father.

"Family safe, do not reply, we are being watched."

The Patronus dissolved into nothingness. Ron let out a noise between a whimper and a groan and dropped onto the sofa: Hermione joined him, gripping his arm.

"They're all right, they're all right!" she whispered, and Ron half laughed and hugged her. "Your father, Arthur Weasley, has a Patronus of a Weasel." Juliunna laughed. "Don't start it." Ron smirked. "Harry," he said over Hermione's shoulder, "I-!"

"It's not a problem," said Harry, sickened by the pain in his head. "It's your family, 'course you were worried. I'd feel the same way." He thought of Ginny. "I do feel the same way."

The pain in his scar was reaching a peak, burning as it had back in the garden of the Burrow. Faintly he heard Hermione say "I don't want to be on my own. Could we use the sleeping bags I've brought and camp in here tonight?"

He heard Ron agree. He could not fight the pain much longer. He had to succumb.

"Bathroom," he muttered, and he left the room as fast as he could without running.

He barely made it: Bolting the door behind him with trembling hands, he grasped his pounding head and fell to the floor, then in an explosion of agony, he felt the rage that did not belong to him possess his soul, saw a long room lit only by firelight, and the giant blond Death Eater on the floor, screaming and writhing, and a slighter figure standing over him, wand outstretched, while Harry spoke in a high, cold, merciless voice.

"More, Rowle, or shall we end it and feed you to Nagini? Lord Voldemort is not sure that he will forgive this time... You called me back for this, to tell me that Harry Potter has escaped again? Draco, give Rowle another taste of our displeasure... Do it, or feel my wrath yourself!"

A log fell in the fire: Flames reared, their light darting across a terrified, pointed white face with a sense of emerging from deep water, Harry drew heaving breaths and opened his eyes.

He was spread-eagled on the cold black marble floor, his nose inches from one of the silver serpent tails that supported the large bathtub. He sat up. Malfoy's gaunt, petrified face seemed burned on the inside of his eyes. Harry felt sickened by what he had seen, by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort.

There was a sharp rap on the door, and Harry jumped as Hermione's voice rang out.

"Harry, do you want your toothbrush? I've got it here."

"Yeah, great, thanks," he said, fighting to keep his voice casual as he stood up to let her in.

Harry woke early next morning, wrapped in a sleeping bag on the drawing room floor. A chink of sky was visible between the heavy curtains. It was the cool, clear blue of watered ink, somewhere between night and dawn, and everything was quiet except for Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione's slow, deep breathing. Harry glanced over at the dark shapes they made on the floor beside him. Juliunna was sleeping on one of the couches, cuddling in the jacket he now noted to be Draco's. Ron had had a fit of gallantry and insisted that Hermione sleep on the cushions from the sofa, so that her silhouette was raised above his. Her arm curved to the floor, her fingers inches from Ron's. Harry wondered whether they had fallen asleep holding hands. The idea made him feel strangely lonely.

He looked up at the shadowy ceiling, the cobwebbed chandelier. Less than twenty-four hours ago, he had been standing in the sunlight at the entrance to the marquee, waiting to show in wedding guests. It seemed a lifetime away. What was going to happen now? He lay on the floor and he thought of the Horcruxes, of the daunting complex mission Dumbledore had left him... Dumbledore...

The grief that had possessed him since Dumbledore's death felt different now. The accusations he had heard from Muriel at the wedding seemed to have nested in his brain like diseased things, infecting his memories of the wizard he had idolized. Could Dumbledore have let such things happen? Had he been like Dudley, content to watch neglect and abuse as long as it did not affect him? Could he have turned his back on a sister who was being imprisoned and hidden?

Harry thought of Godric's Hollow, of graves Dumbledore had never mentioned there; he thought of mysterious objects left without explanation in Dumbledore's will, and resentment swelled in the darkness. Why hadn't Dumbledore told him? Why hadn't he explained? Had Dumbledore actually cared about Harry at all? Or had Harry been nothing more than a tool to be polished and honed, but not trusted, never confided in?

Harry could not stand lying there with nothing but bitter thoughts for company. Desperate for something to do, for distraction, he slipped out of his sleeping bad, picked up his wand, and crept out of the room. On the landing he whispered, "Lumos," and started to climb the stairs by wand light.

**Thirty minutes later**

Juliunna sighed in her sleep and rolled over. She felt warm. Like the sun was pouring its Vitamin heat all over her body. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned over and then-!

"Wake up!" Hermione snapped. Juliunna sat up abruptly, and Hermione pushed her off the couch. "What's up-!"

"Harry's gone!" Hermione shrieked. Juliunna stood up quickly. "What? Did you check upstairs?"

"No. We're doing that now." Hermione said, and then ran for the stairs.

Juliunna shook her head with a frown. "Harry!" She screamed. "What?!" He shouted back.

"Oh, he's upstairs Ron!" Hermione screamed to Ron, and then she stomped up the stairs. Juliunna sat back down and propped her hand under her chin. Ron sat down next to her and laid back down.

A few minutes later, Hermione screamed down the stairs. "Ron! Juliunna! Get up here!" She screamed. Juliunna and Ron tiredly slugged up the stairs. Hermione and Harry were sitting outside a door, staring at the name plate.

"_**Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulas Arcturus Black." **_Juliunna read up. "Yep, R.A.B." She said with a shrug.

"Let's find out," said Harry. He pushed the door: It was locked. Hermione pointed her wand at the handle and said, "Alohamora." There was a click, and the door swung open.

They moved over the threshold together, gazing around. Regulus's bedroom was slightly smaller than Sirius's, though it had the same sense of former grandeur. Whereas Sirius had sought to advertise his diffidence from the rest of the family, Regulus had striven to emphasize the opposite. The Slytherin colors of emerald and silver were everywhere, draping the bed, the walls, and the windows. The Black family crest was painstakingly painted over the bed, along with its motto, TOUJOURS PUR. Beneath this was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged collage. Hermione crossed the room to examine them.

"They're all about Voldemort," she said. "Regulus seems to have been a fan for a few years before he joined the Death Eaters ..."

A little puff of dust rose from the bedcovers as she sat down to read the clippings. Harry, meanwhile, had noticed another photograph: a Hogwarts Quidditch team was smiling and waving out of the frame. He moved closer and saw the snakes emblazoned on their chests: Slytherins. Regulus was instantly recognizable as the boy sitting in the middle of the front row: He had the same dark hair and slightly haughty look of his brother, though he was smaller, slighter, and rather less handsome than Sirius had been.

"He played Seeker," said Harry.

"What?" said Hermione vaguely; she was still immersed in Voldemort's press clippings.

"He's sitting in the middle of the front row, that's where the Seeker ... Never mind," said Harry, realizing that nobody was listening. Ron was on his hands and knees, searching under the wardrobe. Juliunna looked around too, getting down on her knees. Harry looked around the room for likely hiding places and approached the desk. Yet again, somebody had searched before them. The drawers' contents had been turned over recently, the dust disturbed, but there was nothing of value there: old quills, out-of-date textbooks that bore evidence of being roughly handled, a recently smashed ink bottle, its sticky residue covering the contents of the drawer.

"There's an easier way," said Hermione, as Harry wiped his inky fingers on his jeans. She raised her wand and said, "Accio Locket!"

Nothing happened. Ron, who had been searching the folds of the faded curtains, looked disappointed.

"Is that it, then? It's not here?"

"Oh, it could still be here, but under counter-enchantments," Juliunna said. "Charms to prevent it from being summoned magically, you know."

"Like Voldemort put on the stone basin in the cave," said Harry, remembering how he had been unable to Summon the fake locket.

"How are we supposed to find it then?" asked Ron.

"We search manually," said Hermione.

"That's a good idea," said Ron, rolling his eyes, and he resumed his examination of the curtains.

They combed every inch of the room for more than an hour, but were forced, finally, to conclude that the locket was not there.

The sun had risen now; its light dazzled them even through the grimy landing windows.

"It could be somewhere else in the house, though," said Hermione in a rallying tone as they walked back downstairs. As Harry and Ron had become more discouraged, she seemed to have become more determined. Juliunna had long since gone downstairs. "Whether he'd manage to destroy it or not, he'd want to keep it hidden from Voldemort, wouldn't he? Remember all those awful things we had to get rid of when we were here last time? That clock that shot bolts at everyone and those old robes that tried to strangle Ron; Regulus might have put them there to protect the locket's hiding place, even though we didn't realize it at ... at ..."

Harry and Ron looked at her. She was standing with one foot in midair, with the dumbstruck look of one who had just been Obliviated: her eyes had even drifted out of focus.

"... at the time," she finished in a whisper.

"Something wrong?" asked Ron.

"There was a locket."

"What?" said Harry and Ron together.

"In the cabinet in the drawing room. Nobody could open it. And we ... we ..."

Harry felt as though a brick had slid down through his chest into his stomach. He remembered. He had even handled the thing as they passed it around, each trying in turn to pry it open. It had been tossed into a sack of rubbish, along with the snuffbox of Wart cap powder and the music box that had made everyone sleepy ...

"Kreacher nicked loads of things back from us," said Harry. It was the only chance, the only slender hope left to them, and he was going to cling to it until forced to let go. "He had a whole stash of stuff in his cupboard in the kitchen. C'mon."

He ran down the stairs taking two steps at a time, the other two thundering along in his wake. They made so much noise that they woke the portrait of Sirius's mother as they passed through the hall.

"Filth! Mudbloods! Scum!" she screamed after them as they dashed down into the basement kitchen and slammed the door behind them. Harry ran the length of the room, skidded to a halt at the door of Kreacher's cupboard, and wrenched it open. There was the nest of dirty old blankets in which the house-elf had once slept, but they were not longer glittering with the trinkets Kreacher had salvaged. The only thing there was an old copy of Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy. Refusing to believe his eyes, Harry snatched up the blankets and shook them. A dead mouse fell out and rolled dismally across the floor. Ron groaned as he threw himself into a kitchen chair; Hermione closed her eyes. Juliunna, who was biting into an apple and leaning against the dresser, smirked. "Why don't you call him?"  
"Your right," said Harry, and he raised his voice and called, "Kreacher!"

There was a loud crack and the house elf that Harry had so reluctantly inherited from Sirius appeared out of nowhere in front of the cold and empty fireplace: tiny, half human-sized, his pale skin hanging off him in folds, white hair sprouting copiously from his bat like ears. He was still wearing the filthy rag in which they had first met him, and the contemptuous look he bent upon Harry showed that his attitude to his change of ownership had altered no more than his outfit.

"Master," croaked Kreacher in his bullfrog's voice, and he bowed low; muttering to his knees, "back in my Mistress's old house with the blood-traitor Weasley and the Mudblood, and-! Master Malfoy's Girlfriend!" He said, and Juliunna snickered. Harry turned on Kreacher.

"I forbid you to call anyone 'blood traitor' or 'Mudblood,'" growled Harry. He would have found Kreacher, with his snout like nose and bloodshot eyes, a distinctively unlovable object even if the elf had not betrayed Sirius to Voldemort.

"I've got a question for you," said Harry, his heart beating rather fast as he looked down at the elf, "and I order you to answer it truthfully. Understand?"

"Yes, Master," said Kreacher, bowing low again. Harry saw his lips moving soundlessly, undoubtedly framing the insults he was now forbidden to utter.

"Two years ago," said Harry, his heart now hammering against his ribs, "there was a big gold locket in the drawing room upstairs. We threw it out. Did you steal it back?"

There was a moment's silence, during which Kreacher straightened up to look Harry full in the face. Then he said, "Yes."

"Where is it now?" asked Harry jubilantly as Ron and Hermione looked gleeful.

Kreacher closed his eyes as though he could not bear to see their reactions to his next word.

"Gone."

"Gone?" echoed Harry, elation floating out of him, "What do you mean, it's gone?"

The elf shivered. He swayed.

"Kreacher," said Harry fiercely, "I order you "

"Mundungus Fletcher," croaked the elf, his eyes still tight shut. "Mundungus Fletcher stole it all; Miss Bella's and Miss Cissy's pictures, my Mistress's gloves, the Order of Merlin, First Class, the goblets with the family crest, and-"

Kreacher was gulping for air: His hollow chest was rising and falling rapidly, then his eyes flew open and he uttered a bloodcurdling scream.

" and the locket, Master Regulus's locket. Kreacher did wrong, Kreacher failed in his orders!"

Harry reacted instinctively: As Kreacher lunged for the poker standing in the grate, he launched himself upon the elf, flattening him. Hermione's scream mingled with Kreacher's but Harry bellowed louder than both of them: "Kreacher, I order you to stay still!"

He felt the elf freeze and released him. Kreacher lay flat on the cold stone floor, tears gushing from his sagging eyes.

"Harry, let him up!" Hermione whispered. Juliunna lifted a finger, motioning her to shush.

"So he can beat himself up with the poker?" snorted Harry, kneeling beside the elf. "I don't think so. Right. Kreacher, I want the truth: How do you know Mundungus Fletcher stole the locket?"

"Kreacher saw him!" gasped the elf as tears poured over his snout and into his mouth full of graying teeth. "Kreacher saw him coming out of Kreacher's cupboard with his hands full of Kreacher's treasures. Kreacher told the sneak thief to stop, but Mundungus Fletcher laughed and r-ran ..."

"You called the locket 'Master Regulus's,'" said Harry. "Why? Where did it come from? What did Regulus have to do with it? Kreacher, sit up and tell me everything you know about that locket, and everything Regulus had to do with it!"

The elf sat up, curled into a ball, placed his wet face between his knees, and began to rock backward and forward. When he spoke, his voice was muffled but quite distinct in the silent, echoing kitchen.

"Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my Mistress's heart with his lawless ways. But Master Regulus had proper order; he knew what was due to the name of Black and the dignity of his pure blood. For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns ... and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve ...

And one day, a year after he joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. Master Regulus always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said ... he said ..."

The old elf rocked faster than ever.

"... he said that the Dark Lord required an elf."

"Voldemort needed an elf?" Harry repeated, looking around at Ron and Hermione, who looked just as puzzled as he did.

"Oh yes," moaned Kreacher. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do ... and then to c-come home."

Kreacher rocked still faster, his breath coming in sobs.

"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake ..."

The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up. Kreacher's croaking voice seemed to come to him from across the dark water. He saw what had happened as clearly as though he had been present.

"... There was a boat ..."

Of course there had been a boat; Harry knew the boat, ghostly green and tiny, bewitched so as to carry one wizard and one victim toward the island in the center. This, then, was how Voldemort had tested the defenses surrounding the Horcrux, by borrowing a disposable creature, a house-elf...

"There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it ..."

The elf quaked from head to foot.

"Kreacher drank, and as he drank he saw terrible thing ... Kreacher's insides burned ... Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed ... He made Kreacher drink all the potion ... He dropped a locket into the empty basin ... He filled it with more potion."

"And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island ..."

Harry could see it happening. He watched Voldemort's white, snakelike face vanishing into darkness, those red eyes fixed pitilessly on the thrashing elf whose death would occur within minutes, whenever he succumbed to the desperate thirst that the burning poison caused its victim ... But here, Harry's imagination could go no further, for he could not see how Kreacher had escaped.

"Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island's edge and he drank from the black lake ... and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface ..."

"How did you get away?" Harry asked, and he was not surprised to hear himself whispering.

Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked Harry with his great, bloodshot eyes.

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he said.

"I know but how did you escape the Inferi?"

Kreacher did not seem to understand.

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he repeated.

"I know, but "

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it, Harry?" Juliunna said. "He Disapparated!"

"But ... you couldn't Apparate in and out of that cave," said Harry, "otherwise Dumbledore "

"Elf magic isn't like wizard's magic, is it?" said Ron, "I mean, they can Apparate and Disapparate in and out of Hogwarts when we can't."

There was a silence as Harry digested this. How could Voldemort have made such a mistake? But even as he thought this, Hermione spoke, and her voice was icy.

"Of course, Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice ... It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't."

"The house-elf's highest law is his Master's bidding," intoned Kreacher. "Kreacher was told to come home, so Kreacher came home ..."

"Well, then, you did what you were told, didn't you?" said Hermione kindly. "You didn't disobey orders at all!"

Kreacher shook his head, rocking as fast as ever.

"So what happened when you got back?" Harry asked. "What did Regulus say when you told him what happened?"

"Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," croaked Kreacher. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then ... it was a little while later ... Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell ... and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord ..."

And so they had set off. Harry could visualize them quite clearly, the frightened old elf and the thin, dark Seeker who had so resembled Sirius ... Kreacher knew how to open the concealed entrance to the underground cavern, knew how to raise the tiny boat: this time it was his beloved Regulus who sailed with him to the island with its basin of poison ..."

"And he made you drink the poison?" said Harry, disgusted.

But Kreacher shook his head and wept. Hermione's hands leapt to her mouth: She seemed to have understood something.

"M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had," said Kreacher, tears pouring down either side of his snout like nose. "And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets ..."

Kreacher's sobs came in great rasps now; Harry had to concentrate hard to understand him.

"And he order Kreacher to leave without him. And he told Kreacher to go home and never to tell my Mistress what he had done, but to destroy the first locket. And he drank all the potion and Kreacher swapped the lockets and watched ... as Master Regulus ... was dragged beneath the water ... and ..."

"Oh, Kreacher!" wailed Hermione, who was crying. She dropped to her knees beside the elf and tried to hug him. At once he was on his feet, cringing away from her, quite obviously repulsed.

"The Mudblood touched Kreacher, he will not allow it, what would his Mistress say?"

"I told you not to call her 'Mudblood'!" snarled Harry, but the elf was already punishing himself. He fell to the ground and banged his forehead on the floor.

"Stop him stop him!" Hermione cried. "Oh, don't you see now how sick it is, the way they've got to obey?"

"No one but you cares Hermione." Juliunna whisper snarled in her ear, pulling her up.

"Kreacher stop, stop!" shouted Harry.

The elf lay on the floor, panting and shivering, green mucus glistening around his snot, a bruise already blooming on his pallid forehead where he had struck himself, his eyes swollen and bloodshot and swimming in tears. Harry had never seen anything so pitiful.

"So you brought the locket home," he said relentlessly, for he was determined to know the full story. "And you tried to destroy it?"

"Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," moaned the elf. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work ... So many powerful spells upon the casing, Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it would not open ... Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punished himself, he tried again. Kreacher failed to obey orders, Kreacher could not destroy the locket! And his mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave ..."

Kreacher began to sob so hard that there were no more coherent words. Tears flowed down Hermione's cheeks as she watched Kreacher, but she did not dare touch him again. Even Ron, who was no fan of Kreacher's, looked troubled. Harry sat back on his heels and shook his head, trying to clear it.

"I don't understand you, Kreacher," he said finally. "Voldemort tried to kill you, Regulus died to bring Voldemort down, but you were still happy to betray Sirius to Voldemort? You were happy to go to Narcissa and Bellatrix, and pass information to Voldemort through them ..."

"Harry, Kreacher doesn't think like that," said Hermione, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "He's a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn't that far out of the common way. What do wizard wars mean to an elf like Kreacher? He's loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs. Black must have been, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted their beliefs. I know what you're going to say," she went on as Harry began to protest, "that Regulus changed his mind ... but he doesn't seem to have explained that to Kreacher, does he? And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus's family were all safest if they kept to the old pure-blood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all."

"Sirius-!"  
Juliunna took this one, crossing her arms with a smirk.  
"Sirius was horrible to Kreacher, Harry, and it's no good looking like that, you know it's true. Kreacher had been alone for such a long time when Sirius came to live here, and he was probably starving for a bit of affection. I'm sure 'Miss Cissy' and 'Miss Bella' were perfectly lovely to Kreacher when he turned up, so he did them a favor and told them everything they wanted to know. I know for a fact that Dumbledore said all along that wizards would pay for how they treat house-elves. Well, Voldemort did ... and so did Sirius." Juliunna said, crossing her arms.

Harry had no retort. As he watched Kreacher sobbing on the floor, he remembered what Dumbledore had said to him, mere hours after Sirius's death: I do not think Sirius ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human's ...

"Kreacher," said Harry after a while, "when you feel up to it, er ... please sit up."

It was several minutes before Kreacher hiccupped himself into silence. Then he pushed himself into a sitting position again, rubbing his knuckles into his eyes like a small child.

"Kreacher, I am going to ask you to do something," said Harry. He glanced at Hermione for assistance. He wanted to give the order kindly, but at the same time, he could not pretend that it was not an order. However, the change in his tone seemed to have gained her approval: She smiled encouragingly.

"Kreacher, I want you, please, to go and find Mundungus Fletcher. We need to find out where the locket where Master Regulus's locket it. It's really important. We want to finish the work Master Regulus started, we want to er ensure that he didn't die in vain."

Kreacher dropped his fists and looked up at Harry.

"Find Mundungus Fletcher?" he croaked.

"And bring him here, to Grimmauld Place," said Harry. "Do you think you could do that for us?"

As Kreacher nodded and got to his feet, Harry had a sudden inspiration. He pulled out Hagrid's purse and took out the fake Horcrux, the substitute locket in which Regulus had placed the note to Voldemort.

"Kreacher, I'd, er, like you to have this," he said, pressing the locket into the elf's hand. "This belonged to Regulus and I'm sure he'd want you to have it as a token of gratitude for what you "

"Overkill, mate," said Ron as the elf took one look at the locket, let out a howl of shock and misery, and threw himself back onto the ground.

It took them nearly half an hour to calm down Kreacher, who was so overcome to be presented with a Black family heirloom for his very own that he was too weak at the knees to stand properly. When finally he was able to totter a few steps they all accompanied him to his cupboard, watched him tuck up the locket safely in his dirty blankets, and assured him that they would make its protection their first priority while he was away. He then made two low bows to Harry and Ron, gave Juliunna a hug around the knees, and even gave a funny little spasm in Hermione's direction that might have been an attempt at a respectful salute, before Disapparating with the usual loud crack.  
If Kreacher could escape a lake full of Inferi, Harry was confident that the capture of Mundungus would take a few hours at most, and he prowled the house all morning in a state of high anticipation. However, Kreacher did not return that morning or even that afternoon. By nightfall, Harry felt discouraged and anxious, and a supper composed largely of moldy bread, upon which Hermione had tried a variety of unsuccessful Transfigurations, did nothing to help.

Kreacher did not return the following day, nor the day after that. However, two cloaked men had appeared in the square outside number twelve, and they remained there into the night, gazing in the direction of the house that they could not see.

"Death Eaters, for sure," said Ron, as he, Harry, Juliunna, and Hermione watched from the drawing room windows. "Reckon they know we're in here?"

"I don't think so," said Hermione, though she looked frightened, "or they'd have sent Snape in after us, wouldn't they?"

"D'you reckon he's been in here and has his tongue tied by Moody's curse?" asked Ron.

"Yes," said Hermione, "otherwise he'd have been able to tell that lot how to get in, wouldn't he? But they're probably watching to see whether we turn up. They know that Harry owns the house, after all."

"How do they-!?" began Harry.

"Wizarding wills are examined by the Ministry, remember? They'll know Sirius left you the place." Juliunna grumbled, poking her bread sadly.

The presence of the Death Eaters outside increased the ominous mood inside number twelve. They had not heard a word form anyone beyond Grimmauld Place since Mr. Weasley's Patronus, and the strain was starting to tell. Restless and irritable, Ron had developed an annoying habit of playing with the Deluminator in his pocket; This particularly infuriated Hermione, who was whiling away the wait for Kreacher by studying The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Juliunna, who was trying to read _Hogwarts, A History_. Both did not appreciate the way the lights kept flashing on and off.

"Will you stop it!" They both cried on the third evening of Kreacher's absence, as all the light was sucked from the drawing room yet again.

"Sorry, sorry!" said Ron, clicking the Deluminator and restoring the lights. "I don't know I'm doing it!"

"Well, can't you find something useful to occupy yourself?" Hermione snarled.

"What, like reading kids' stories?"

"Dumbledore left me this book, Ron "

" and he left me the Deluminator, maybe I'm supposed to use it!"

Unable to stand the bickering, Harry slipped out of the room unnoticed by either of them. He headed downstairs toward the kitchen, which he kept visiting because he was sure that was where Kreacher was most likely to reappear. Halfway down the flight of stairs into the hall, however, he heard a tap on the front door, then metallic clicks and the grinding of the chain.

Every nerve in his body seemed to tauten: He pulled out his wand, moved into the shadows beside the decapitated elf heads, and waited. The door opened: He saw a glimpse of the lamp lit square outside, and a cloaked figure edged into the hall and closed the door behind it. The intruder took a step forward, and Moody's voice asked, "Severus Snape?" Then the dust figure rose from the end of the hall and rushed him, raising its dead hand.

"It was not I who killed you, Albus," said a quiet voice.

The jinx broke: The dust-figure exploded again, and it was impossible to make out the newcomer through the dense gray cloud it left behind.

Harry pointed the wand into the middle of it.

"Don't move!"

He had forgotten the portrait of Mrs. Black: At the sound of his yell, the curtains hiding her flew open and she began to scream, "Mudbloods and filth dishonoring my house "

Ron and Hermione came crashing down the stairs behind Harry, wands pointing, like his, at the unknown man now standing with his arms raised in the hall below. Juliunna, wandless, poked around the hall curiously.

"Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!"

"Oh, thank goodness," said Hermione weakly, pointing her wand at Mrs. Black instead; with a bang, the curtains swished shut again and silence fell. Ron too lowered his wand, but Harry did not.

"Show yourself!" he called back.

Lupin moved forward into the lamplight, hands still held high in a gesture of surrender.

"I am Remus John Lupin, werewolf, sometimes known as Moony, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to Nymphadora, usually known as Tonks, and I taught you how to produce a Patronus, Harry, which takes the form of a stag."

"Oh, all right," said Harry, lowering his wand, "but I had to check, didn't I?"

"Speaking as your ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, I quite agree that you had to check. Ron, Hermione, you shouldn't be so quick to lower your defenses."

They ran down the stairs towards him. Wrapped in a thick black traveling cloak, he looked exhausted, but pleased to see them.

"No sign of Severus, then?" he asked.

"No," said Harry. "What's going on? Is everyone okay?"

"Yes," said Lupin, "but we're all being watched. There are a couple of Death Eaters in the square outside "

"We know." Juliunna answered, joining them.

"I had to Apparate very precisely onto the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see me. They can't know you're in here or I'm sure they'd have more people out there; they're staking out everywhere that's got any connection with you, Harry. Let's go downstairs, there's a lot to tell you, and I want to know what happened after you left the Burrow."

They descended into the kitchen, where Hermione pointed her wand at the grate. A fire sprang up instantly: It gave the illusion of coziness to the stark stone walls and glistened off the long wooden table. Lupin pulled a few butterbeers from beneath his traveling cloak and they sat down.

"I'd have been here three days ago but I needed to shake off the Death Eater tailing me," said Lupin. "So, you came straight here after the wedding?"

"No," said Harry, "Only after we ran into a couple of Death Eaters in a café on Tottenham Court Road."

Lupin slopped most of his butterbeer down his front.

"What?"

They explained what had happened; when they had finished, Lupin looked aghast.

"But how did they find you so quickly? It's impossible to track anyone who Apparates, unless you grab hold of them as they disappear."

"And it doesn't seem likely they were just strolling down Tottenham Court Road at the time, does it?" said Harry.

"We wondered," said Hermione tentatively, "whether Harry could still have the Trace on him?"

"Impossible," said Lupin. Ron looked smug, and Harry felt hugely relieved. "Apart from anything else, they'd know for sure Harry was here if he still had the Trace on him, wouldn't they? But I can't see how they could have tracked you to Tottenham Court Road, that's worrying, really worrying."

He looked disturbed, but as far as Harry was concerned, that question could wait.

"Tell us what happened after we left, we haven't heard a thing since Ron's dad told us the family was safe."

"Well, Kingsley saved us," said Lupin. "Thanks to his warning most of the wedding guests were able to Disapparate before they arrived."

"Were they Death Eaters or Ministry people?" interjected Hermione. Juliunna leaned forward, her eyes wide and intelligent.

"A mixture; but to all intents and purposes they're the same thing now," said Lupin. "There were about a dozen of them, but they didn't know you were there, Harry. They were really looking for Juliunna. Arthur heard a rumor that they tried to torture your whereabouts out of Scrimgeour before they killed him; if it's true, he didn't give you away." He said to Harry.

Harry looked at Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione; their expressions reflected the mingled shock and gratitude he felt. He had never liked Scrimgeour much, but if what Lupin said was true, the man's final act had been to try to protect Harry.

"The Death Eaters searched the Burrow from top to bottom," Lupin went on. "They found the ghoul, but didn't want to get too close and then they interrogated those of us who remained for hours. They were trying to get information on Juliunna and you, Harry, but of course nobody apart from the Order knew that you had been there."

"At the same time that they were smashing up the wedding, more Death Eaters were forcing their way into every Order-connected house in the country. No deaths," he added quickly, forestalling the question, "but they were rough. They burned down Dedalus Diggle's house, but as you know he wasn't there, and they used the Cruciatus Curse on Tonks's family. Again, trying to find out where you went after you visited them. They're all right, shaken, obviously, but otherwise okay."

"The Death Eaters got through all those protective charms?" Harry asked, remembering how effective these had been on the night he had crashed in Tonks's parents' garden.

"What you've got to realize, Harry, is that the Death Eaters have got the full might of the Ministry on their side now," said Lupin. "They've got the power to perform brutal spells without fear of identification or arrest. They managed to penetrate every defensive spell we'd cast against them, and once inside, they were completely open about why they'd come."

"And are they bothering to give an excuse for torturing Harry's whereabouts out of people?" Juliunna said, an edge to her voice.

"Well," Lupin said. He hesitated, then pulled out a folded copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Here," he said, pushing it across the table to Harry, "you'll know sooner or later anyway. That's their pretext for going after you."

Harry smoothed out the paper. A huge photograph of his own face filled the front page. He read the headline over it:  
**  
****WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ABOUT THE DEATH OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**  
Ron and Hermione gave roars of outrage, but Harry and Juliunna said nothing. He pushed the newspaper away; he did not want to read anymore: He knew what it would say. Nobody but those who had been on top of the tower when Dumbledore died, knew who had really killed him and, as Rita Skeeter had already told the Wizarding world, Harry had been seen running from the place moments after Dumbledore had fallen.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Lupin said.

"So Death Eaters have taken over the Daily Prophet too?" asked Hermione furiously.

Lupin nodded.

"But surely people realize what's going on?" Juliunna smirked, tilting her head to the side.

"The coup has been smooth and virtually silent," said Lupin.

"The official version of Scrimgeour's murder is that he resigned; he has been replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse."

"Why didn't Voldemort declare himself Minister of Magic?" asked Ron.

Lupin laughed.

"He doesn't need to, Ron. Effectively, he is the Minister, but why should he sit behind a desk at the Ministry? His puppet, Thicknesse, is taking care of everyday business, leaving Voldemort free to extend his power beyond the Ministry."

"Naturally many people have deduced what has happened: There has been such a dramatic change in Ministry policy in the last few days, and many are whispering that Voldemort must be behind it. However, that is the point: They whisper. They daren't confide in each other, not knowing whom to trust; they are scared to speak out, in case their suspicions are true and their families are targeted. Yes, Voldemort is playing a very clever game. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion: Remaining masked has created confusion, uncertainty, and fear."

"And this dramatic change in Ministry policy," said Harry, "involves warning the Wizarding world against me instead of Voldemort?"

"That's certainly a part of it," said Lupin, "and it is a masterstroke. Now that Dumbledore is dead, you the Boy Who Lived were sure to be the symbol and rallying point for any resistance to Voldemort. But by suggesting that you had a hand in the old hat's death, Voldemort has not only set a price upon your head, but sown doubt and fear amongst many who would have defended you."

"Meanwhile, the Ministry has started moving against Muggle-borns."

Lupin pointed at the Daily Prophet.

"Look at page two."

Hermione turned the pages with much the same expression of distaste she had when handling Secrets of the Darkest Art.

"Muggle-born Register!" she read aloud. "'The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so-called "Muggle-borns" the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets.

"'Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when Wizards reproduce. Where no proven Wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force.

"'The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission.'"

"People won't let this happen," said Ron.

"It is happening, Ron," said Lupin. "Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak."

"But how are they supposed to have 'stolen' magic?" said Ron. "It's mental, if you could steal magic there wouldn't be any Squibs, would there?"

"I know," said Lupin. "Nevertheless, unless you can prove that you have at least one close Wizarding relative, you are now deemed to have obtained your magical power illegally and must suffer the punishment."

Ron glanced at Hermione, then said, "What if purebloods and half bloods swear a Muggle-born's part of their family? I'll tell everyone Hermione's my cousin "

Hermione covered Ron's hand with hers and squeezed it.

"Thank you, Ron, but I couldn't let you "

"You won't have a choice," said Ron fiercely, gripping her hand back. "I'll teach you my family tree so you can answer questions on it."

Hermione gave a shaky laugh.

"Ron, as we're on the run with Harry Potter, the most wanted person in the country, I don't think it matters. If I was going back to school it would be different."

"Not really." Juliunna said, tapping her chin. There is a pretty advanced potion that will truthfully reveal a person's blood status and family tree. I found it in the restricted section, but it seems a little old and forgotten. If I was in charge of that branch, I'd use that potion." Juliunna said, and Ron's lips twitched. Hermione nodded, with a little well chosen whispered swear words to Jules, and then turned to Remus. "What's Voldemort planning for Hogwarts?" she asked Lupin.

"Attendance is now compulsory for every young witch and wizard," he replied. "That was announced yesterday. It's a change, because it was never obligatory before. Of course, nearly every witch and wizard in Britain has been educated at Hogwarts, but their parents had the right to teach them at home or send them abroad if they preferred. This way, Voldemort will have the whole Wizarding population under his eye from a young age. And it's also another way of weeding out Muggle-borns, because students must be given Blood Status, meaning that they have proven to the Ministry that they are of Wizard descent before they are allowed to attend."

Harry felt sickened and angry: At this moment, excited eleven-year-olds would be poring over stacks of newly purchased spell-books, unaware that they would never see Hogwarts, perhaps never see their families again either.

"It's... it's..." he muttered, struggling to find words that did justice to the horror of his thoughts, but Lupin said quietly, "I know."

Lupin hesitated.

"I'll understand if you can't confirm this, Harry, but the Order is under the impression that Dumbledore left you a mission."

"He did," Harry replied, "and Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione are in on it and they're coming with me."

"Can you confide in me what the mission is?"

Harry looked into the prematurely lined face, framed in thick but graying hair, and wished that he could return a different answer.

"I can't, Remus, I'm sorry. If Dumbledore didn't tell you I don't think I can."

"I thought you'd say that," said Lupin, looking disappointed. "But I might still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to."

Harry hesitated. It was a very tempting offer, though how they would be able to keep their mission secret from Lupin if he were with them all the time he could not imagine.

Hermione, however, looked puzzled.

"But what about Tonks?" she asked.

"What about her?" said Lupin.

"Well," said Hermione, frowning, "you're married! How does she feel about you going away with us?"

"Tonks will be perfectly safe," said Lupin, "She'll be at her parents' house."

There was something strange in Lupin's tone, it was almost cold. There was also something odd in the idea of Tonks remaining hidden at her parents' house; she was, after all, a member of the Order and, as far as Harry knew, was likely to want to be in the thick of the action.

"Remus," Juliunna said tentatively, "is everything all right... you know... between you and

"Everything is fine, thank you," said Lupin pointedly.

Hermione turned pink. There was another pause, an awkward and embarrassed one, and then Lupin said, with an air of forcing himself to admit something unpleasant, "Tonks is going to have a baby."

"Oh, how wonderful!" squealed Hermione.

"Excellent!" said Ron enthusiastically.

"Congratulations," said Harry.

"Cute." Juliunna shrugged.

Lupin gave an artificial smile that was more like a grimace, then said, "So... do you accept my offer? Will four become five? I cannot believe that Dumbledore would have disapproved, he appointed me your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, after all. And I must tell you that I believe we are facing magic many of us have never encountered or imagined."

Ron and Hermione both looked at Harry, but Juliunna busied herself with looking at a cricket on the floor. She grimaced deeply.

"Just to be clear," Harry said. "You want to leave Tonks at her parents' house and come away with us?"

"She'll be perfectly safe there, they'll look after her," said Lupin. He spoke with a finality bordering on indifference: "Harry, I'm sure James would have wanted me to stick with you."

"Well," said Harry slowly, "I'm not. I'm pretty sure my father would have wanted to know why you aren't sticking with your own kid, actually."

Lupin's face drained of color. The temperature in the kitchen might have dropped ten degrees. Ron stared around the room as though he had been bidden to memorize it, while Hermione's eyes swiveled backward and forward from Harry to Lupin.

"You don't understand," said Lupin at last.

"Explain, then," said Harry.

Lupin swallowed.

"I-I made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks. I did it against my better judgment and have regretted it very much every since."

"I see," said Harry, "so you're just going to dump her and the kid and run off with us?"

Lupin sprang to his feet: His chair toppled over backward, and he glared at them so fiercely that Harry saw, for the first time ever, she shadow of the wolf upon his human face.

"Don't you understand what I've done to my wife and my unborn child? I should never have married her, I've made her an outcast!"

Lupin kicked aside the chair he had overturned.

"You have only ever seen me amongst the Order, or under Dumbledore's protection at Hogwarts! You don't know how most of the Wizarding world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me! Don't you see what I've done? Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents want their only daughter to marry a werewolf? And the child the child "

Lupin actually seized handfuls of his own hair; he looked quite deranged.

"My kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it how can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!"

"Remus!" whispered Hermione, tears in her eyes. "Don't say that how could any child be ashamed of you?"

"Oh, I don't know, Hermione," said Harry. "I'd be pretty ashamed of him."

Harry did not know where his rage was coming from, but it had propelled him to his feet too. Lupin looked as though Harry had hit him.

"If the new regime thinks Muggle-borns are bad," Harry said, "what will they do to a half-werewolf whose father's in the Order? My father died trying to protect my mother and me, and you reckon he'd tell you to abandon your kid to go on an adventure with us?"

"How-! How dare you?" said Lupin. "This is not about a desire for danger or personal glory how dare you suggest such-!"

"I think you're feeling a bit of a daredevil," Harry said, "You fancy stepping into Sirius's shoes "

"Harry, no!" Hermione begged him, but he continued to glare into Lupin's livid face.

"I'd never have believed this," Harry said. "The man who taught me to fight dementors a coward."

Lupin drew his wand so fast that Harry had barely reached for his own; there was a loud bang and he felt himself flying backward as if punched; as he slammed into the kitchen wall and slid to the floor, he glimpsed the tail of Lupin's cloak disappearing around the door.

"Remus, Remus, come back!" Hermione cried, but Lupin did not respond. A moment later they heard the front door slam.

"Harry!" wailed Hermione. "How could you?"

"It was easy," said Harry. He stood up, he could feel a lump swelling where his head had hit the wall. He was still so full of anger he was shaking.

"Don't look at me like that!" he snapped at Hermione.

"Don't you start on her!" snarled Ron.

"Will you stop being so damn emotional?!" Juliunna snarled at Hermione, and then everyone was standing. Harry and Juliunna were facing Ron and Hermione.

"No, we mustn't fight!" said Hermione, launching herself between them.

"You shouldn't have said that stuff to Lupin," Ron told Harry.

"He said it for a reason." Juliunna snarled.

"He had it coming to him," said Harry, nodding. Broken images were racing each other through his mind: Sirius falling through the veil; Dumbledore suspended, broken, in midair; a flash of green light and his mother's voice, begging for mercy...

"Parents," said Harry, "shouldn't leave their kids unless they've got to."

"Harry " said Hermione, stretching out a consoling hand, but he shrugged it off and walked away, his eyes on the fire Hermione had conjured. Juliunna strode back to her chair and sat down, burying her head in her arms. He had once spoken to Lupin out of that fireplace, seeking reassurance about James, and Lupin had consoled him. Now Lupin's tortured white face seemed to swim in the air before him. He felt a sickening surge of remorse. Neither Ron nor Hermione neither Juliunna spoke, but Harry felt sure that they were looking at each other behind his back, communicating silently.

He turned around and caught them turning hurriedly away form each other.

"I know I shouldn't have called him a coward."

"No, you shouldn't," said Ron at once.

"But he's acting like one."

"All the same..." said Hermione.

"I know," said Harry. "But if it makes him go back to Tonks, it'll be worth it, won't it?"

He could not keep the plea out of his voice. Hermione looked sympathetic, Ron uncertain. Juliunna breathed deeply into her arms out of anger. Harry looked down at his feet, thinking of his father. Would James have backed Harry in what he had said to Lupin, or would he have been angry at how his son had treated his old friend?

The silent kitchen seemed to hum with the shock of the recent scene and with Ron and Hermione's unspoken reproaches. The Daily Prophet Lupin had brought was still lying on the table, Harry's own face staring up at the ceiling from the front page. He walked over to it and sat down, opened the paper at random, and pretended to read. He could not take in the words; his mind was still too full of the encounter with Lupin. He was sure that Ron and Hermione had resumed their silent communications on the other side of the Prophet. He turned a page loudly, and Dumbledore's name leapt out at him. It was a moment or two before he took in the meaning of the photograph, which showed a family group. Beneath the photograph were the words: **The Dumbledore family, left to right: Albus; Percival, holding newborn Ariana; Kendra, and Aberforth.******

His attention caught, Harry examined the picture more carefully. Dumbledore's father, Percival, was a good-looking man with eyes that seemed to twinkle even in this faded old photograph. The baby, Ariana, was a little longer than a loaf of bread and no more distinctive-looking. The mother, Kendra, had jet black hair pulled into a high bun. Her face had a carved quality about it. Harry thought of photos of Native Americans he'd seen as he studied her dark eyes, high cheekbones, and straight nose, formally composed above a high-necked silk gown. Albus and Aberforth wore matching lacy collared jackets and had identical, shoulder-length hairstyles. Albus looked several years older, but otherwise the two boys looked very alike, for this was before Albus's nose had been broken and before he started wearing glasses.

The family looked quite happy and normal, smiling serenely up out of the newspaper. Baby Ariana's arm waved vaguely out of her shawl. Harry looked above the picture and saw the headline:

_****__**EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM UPCOMING**__**  
**__**BIOGRAPHY OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**__**  
**__**by Rita Skeeter**_

Thinking it could hardly make him feel any worse than he already did, Harry began to read:

_****__**Proud and haughty, Kendra Dumbledore could not bear to remain in Mould-on-the-Wold after her husband Percival's well-publicized arrest and imprisonment in Azkaban. She therefore decided to uproot the family and relocate to Godric's Hollow, the village that was later to gain fame as the scene of Harry Potter's strange escape from You-Know-Who.**__****_

_**Like Mould-on-the-Wold, Godric's Hollow was home to a number of Wizarding families, but as Kendra knew none of them, she would be spared the curiosity about her husband's crime she had faced in her former village. By repeatedly rebuffing the friendly advances of her new Wizarding neighbors, she soon ensured that her family was left well alone.**__****_

_**"Slammed the door in my face when I went around to welcome her with a batch of homemade Cauldron Cakes," says Bathilda Bagshot. "The first year they were there I only ever saw the two boys. Wouldn't have known there was a daughter if I hadn't been picking Plangentines by moonlight the winter after they moved in, and saw Kendra leading Ariana out into the back garden. Walked her round the lawn once, keeping a firm grip on her, then took her back inside. Didn't know what to make of it."**__****_

_**It seems that Kendra thought the move to Godric's Hollow was the perfect opportunity to hide Ariana once and for all, something she had probably been planning for years. The timing was significant. Ariana was barely seven years old when she vanished from sight, and seven is the age by which most experts agree that magic will have revealed itself, if present. Nobody now alive remembers Ariana ever demonstrating even the slightest sign of magical ability. It seems clear, therefore, that Kendra made a decision to hide her daughter's existence rather than suffer the shame of admitting that she had produced a Squib. Moving away from the friends and neighbors who knew Ariana would, of course, make imprisoning her all the easier. The tiny number of people who henceforth knew of Ariana's existence could be counted upon to keep the secret, including her two brothers, who had deflected awkward questions with the answer their mother had taught them. "My sister is too frail for school."**__****_

**Next week: Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts the Prizes and the Pretense.**  
Harry had been wrong: What he had read had indeed made him feel worse. He looked back at the photograph of the apparently happy family. Was it true? How could he find out? He wanted to go to Godric's Hollow, even if Bathilda was in no fit state to talk to him: he wanted to visit the place where he and Dumbledore had both lost loved ones. He was in the process of lowering the newspaper, to ask Ron', Juliunna's and Hermione's opinions, when a deafening crack echoed around the kitchen. 


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28:

**Normal Pov**

For the first time in three days Harry had forgotten all about Kreacher. His immediate thought was that Lupin had burst back into the room, and for a split second, he did not take in the mass of struggling limbs that had appeared out of thin air right beside his chair. He hurried to his feet as Kreacher disentangled himself and, bowing low to Harry, croaked, "Kreacher has returned with the thief Mundungus Fletcher, Master."

Mundungus scrambled up and pulled out his wand; Hermione, however, was too quick for him.

"Expelliarmus!"

Mundungus's wand soared into the air, and Hermione caught it. Wild-eyed, Mundungus dived for the stairs. Ron rugby-tackled him and Mundungus hit the stone floor with a muffled crunch.

"What?" he bellowed, writhing in his attempts to free himself from Ron's grip. "What've I done? Setting a bleedin' 'house-elf on me, what are you playing at, what've I done, lemme go, lemme go or I'mma-!"

"You're not in much of a position to make threats," Juliunna said boringly, looking at him over the counter. Harry threw aside the newspaper, crossed the kitchen in a few strides, and dropped to his knees beside Mundungus, who stopped struggling and looked terrified. Ron got up, panting, and watched as Harry pointed his wand deliberately at Mundungus's nose. Mundungus stank of stale sweat and tobacco smoke. His hair was matted and his robes stained.

"Kreacher apologizes for the delay in bringing the thief, Master," croaked the elf. "Fletcher knows how to avoid capture, has many hidey-holes and accomplices. Nevertheless, Kreacher cornered the thief in the end."

"You've done really well, Kreacher," said Harry, and the elf bowed low.

"Right, we've got a few questions for you," Harry told Mundungus, who shouted at once.

"I panicked, okay? I never wanted to come along, no offense, mate, but I never volunteered to die for you, an' that was bleedin' You-Know-Who come flying at me, anyone woulda got outta there. I said all along I didn't wanna do it "

"For your information, none of the rest of us Disapparated," said Hermione.

"Well, you're a bunch of bleedin' 'eroes then, aren't you, but I never pretended I was up for killing meself."

"We're not interested in why you ran out on Mad-Eye," said Harry, moving his wand a little closer to Mundungus's baggy, bloodshot eyes. "We already knew you were an unreliable bit of scum."

"Well then, why the 'ell am I being 'unted down by 'ouse-elves? Or is this about them goblets again? I ain't got none of 'em left, or you could 'ave 'em "

"It's not about the goblets either, although you're getting warmer," said Harry. "Shut up and listen."

It felt wonderful to have something to do, someone of whom he could demand some small portion of truth. Harry's wand was now so close to the bridge of Mundungus's nose that Mundungus had gone cross-eyed trying to keep it in view.

"When you cleaned out this house of anything valuable," Harry began, but Mundungus interrupted him again.

"Sirius never cared about any of the junk "

There was the sound of pattering fee, a blaze of shining copper, an echoing clang, and a shriek of agony; Kreacher had taken a run at Mundungus and hit him over the head with a saucepan.

"Call 'im off, call 'im off, 'e should be locked up!" screamed Mundungus, cowering as Kreacher raised the heavy-bottomed pan again.

"Kreacher, no!" shouted Harry.

Kreacher's thin arms trembled with the weight of the pan, still held aloft.

"Perhaps just one more, Master Harry, for luck?"

Ron and Juliunna laughed.

"We need him conscious, Kreacher, but if he needs persuading, you can do the honors," said Harry.

"Thank you very much, Master," said Kreacher with a bow, and he retreated a short distance, his great pale eyes still fixed upon Mundungus with loathing.

"When you stripped this house of all the valuables you could find," Harry began again, "you took a bunch of stuff from the kitchen cupboard. There was a locket there." Harry's mouth was suddenly dry: He could sense Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione's tension and excitement too. "What did you do with it?"

"Why?" asked Mundungus. "Is it valuable?"

"You've still got it!" cried Hermione.

"No, he hasn't," said Ron shrewdly. "He's wondering whether he should have asked more money for it."

"More?" said Mundungus. "That wouldn't have been effing difficult...bleedin' gave it away, di'n' I? No choice."

"What do you mean?"

"I was selling in Diagon Alley and she come up to me and asks if I've got a license for trading in magical artifacts. Bleedin' snoop. She was gonna fine me, but she took a fancy to the locket an' told me she'd take it and let me off that time, and to think meself lucky."

"Who was this woman?" Juliunna asked.

"I dunno, some Ministry hag."

Mundungus considered for a moment, brow wrinkled.

"Little woman. Bow on top of 'er head."

He frowned and then added, "Looked like a toad."

Harry dropped his wand: It hit Mundungus on the nose and shot red sparks into his eyebrows, which ignited.

"Aquamenti!" screamed Hermione, and a jet of water streamed from her wand, engulfing a spluttering and choking Mundungus.

Harry looked up and saw his own shock reflected in Ron's and Hermione's faces. Juliunna buried her head into her arms. The scars on the back of his right hand seemed to be tingling again.  
As August wore on, the square of unkempt grass in the middle of Grimmauld Place shriveled in the sun until it was brittle and brown. The inhabitants of number twelve were never seen by anyone in the surrounding houses, and nor was number twelve itself. The muggles who lived in Grimmauld Place had long since accepted the amusing mistake in the numbering that had caused number eleven to sit beside number thirteen.

And yet the square was now attracting a trickle of visitors who seemed to find the anomaly most intriguing. Barely a day passed without one or two people arriving in Grimmauld Place with no other purpose, or so it seemed, than to lean against the railings facing numbers eleven and thirteen, watching the join between the two houses. The lurkers were never the same two days running, although they all seemed to share a dislike for normal clothing. Most of the Londoners who passed them were used to eccentric dressers and took little notice, though occasionally one of them might glance back, wondering why anyone would wear cloaks in this heat.

The watchers seemed to be gleaning little satisfaction from their vigil. Occasionally one of them started forward excitedly, as if they had seen something interesting at last, only to fall back looking disappointed.

On the first day of September there were more people lurking in the square than ever before. Half a dozen men in long cloaks stood silent and watchful, gazing as ever at houses eleven and thirteen, but the thing for which they were waiting still appeared elusive. As evening drew in, bringing with it an unexpected gust of chilly rain for the first time in weeks, there occurred one of those inexplicable moments when they appeared to have seen something interesting. The man with the twisted face pointed and his closest companion, a podgy, pallid man, started forward, but a moment later they had relaxed into their previous state of inactivity, looking frustrated and disappointed.

Meanwhile, inside number twelve, Harry had just entered the hall. He had nearly lost his balance as he Apperated onto the top step just outside the front door, and thought that the Death Eaters might have caught a glimpse of his momentarily exposed elbow. Shutting the front door carefully behind him, he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, draped it over his arm, and hurried along the gloomy hallway toward the door that led to the basement, a stolen copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in his hand.

The usual low whisper of "Severus Snape" greeted him, the chill wind swept him, and his tongue rolled up for a moment.

"I didn't kill you," he said, once it had unrolled, then held his breath as the dusty jinx-figure exploded. He waited until he was halfway down the stairs to the kitchen, out of earshot of Mrs. Black and clear of the dust cloud, before calling, "I've got news, and you won't like it."

The kitchen was almost unrecognizable. Every surface now shone; Copper pots and pans had been burnished to a rosy glow; the wooden tabletop gleamed; the goblets and plates already laid for dinner glinted in the light from a merrily blazing fire, on which a cauldron was simmering. Nothing in the room, however, was more dramatically different than the house-elf who now came hurrying toward Harry, dressed in a snowy-white towel, his ear hair as clean and fluffy as cotton wool, Regulus's locket bouncing on his thin chest.

"Shoes off, if you please, Master Harry, and hands washed before dinner," croaked Kreacher, seizing the Invisibility Cloak and slouching off to hang it on a hook on the wall, beside a number of old-fashioned robes that had been freshly laundered.

"What's happened?" Ron asked apprehensively. He are Hermione had been pouring over a sheaf of scribbled notes and hand drawn maps that littered the end of the long kitchen table, but now they watched Harry as he strode toward them and threw down the newspaper on top of their scattered parchment. Juliunna, who was reading Hermione's Beetle and Botts book, looked at the newspaper curiously.

A large picture of a familiar, hook-nosed, black-haired man stared up at them all, beneath a headline that read:

**SEVERUS SNAPE CONFIRMED****AS HOGWARTS HEADMASTER**

"No!" said Ron and Hermione loudly.

Hermione was quickest; she snatched up the newspaper and began to read the accompanying story out loud.

"Severus Snape, long-standing Potions master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and wizardry, was today appointed headmaster in the most important of several staffing changes at the ancient school. Following the resignation of the previous Muggle Studies teacher, Alecto Carrow will take over the post while her brother, Amycus, fills the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

" 'I welcome the opportunity to uphold our finest Wizarding traditions and values. Like committing murder and cutting off people's ears, I suppose! Snape, headmaster! Snape in Dumbledore's study. Merlin's pants!" she shrieked, making both Harry and Ron jump. She leapt up from the table and hurtled from the room, shouting as she went, "I'll be back in a minute!"

"'Merlin's pants'?" repeated Ron, looking amused. "She must be upset." Juliunna snorted, and quickly wiped her face into a mask of sullen and indifference. He pulled the newspaper toward him and perused the article about Snape.

"The other teachers won't stand for this, McGonagall and Flitwick and Sprout all know the truth, they know how Dumbledore died. They won't accept Snape as headmaster. And who are these Carrows?"

"Death Eaters," said Harry. "There are pictures of them inside. They were at the top of the tower when Snape killed Dumbledore, so it's all friends together. And," Harry went on bitterly, drawing up a chair, "I can't see that the other teachers have got any choice but to stay. If the Ministry and Voldemort are behind Snape, it'll be a choice between staying and teaching, or a nice few years in Azkaban and that's if they're lucky. I reckon they'll stay to try and protect the students." He said, and Juliunna nodded.

Kreacher came bustling to the table with a large pot in his hands, and ladled out soup into pristine bowls, whistling between his teeth as he did so.

"Thanks, Kreacher," said Harry, flipping over the Prophet so as not to have to look at Snape's face. "Well, at least we know exactly where Snape is now."

He began to spoon soup into his mouth. The quality of Kreacher's cooking had improved dramatically ever since he had been given Regulus's locket: Today's French onion was as good as Harry had ever tasted.

"There are still a load of Death Eaters watching this house," he told Ron as he ate, "more than usual. It's like they're hoping we'll march out carrying our school trunks and head off for the Hogwarts Express."

Ron glanced at his watch.

"I've been thinking about that all day. It left nearly six hours ago. Weird, not being on it, isn't it?"

In his mind's eye Harry seemed to see the scarlet steam engine as he and Ron had once followed it by air, shimmering between fields and hills, a rippling scarlet caterpillar. He was sure Ginny, Neville, and Luna were sitting together at this moment, perhaps wondering where he, Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione were, or debating how best to undermine Snape's new regime.

"They nearly saw me coming back in just now," Harry said, "I landed badly on the top step, and the Cloak slipped."

"I do that every time. Oh, here she is," Ron added, craning around in his seat to watch Hermione reentering the kitchen. "And what in the name of Merlin's most baggy-! What was that about?"

"I remembered this," Hermione panted.

She was carrying a large, framed picture, which she now lowered to the floor before seizing her small, beaded bag from the kitchen sideboard. Opening it, she proceeded to force the painting inside and despite the fact that it was patently too large to fit inside the tiny bag, within a few seconds it had vanished, like so much ease, into the bag's capacious depths.

"Phineas Nigellus," Hermione explained as she threw the bag onto the kitchen table with the usual sonorous, clanking crash.

"Sorry?" said Ron, but Harry understood. The painted image of Phineas Nigellus Black was able to travel between his portrait in Grimmauld Place and the one that hung in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts: the circular cower-top room where Snape was no doubt sitting right now, in triumphant possession of Dumbledore's collection of delicate, silver magical instruments, the stone Pensive, the Sorting Hat and, unless it ad been moved elsewhere, the sword of Gryffindor.

"Snape could send Phineas Nigellus to look inside this house for him," Hermione explained to Ron as she resumed her seat. "But let him try it now, all Phineas Nigellus will be able to see is the inside of my handbag."

"Good thinking!" said Ron, looking impressed. Juliunna quietly pulled her soap bowl closer and spoon fed herself, thinking about an intricate and highly difficult math problem.

"Thank you," smiled Hermione, pulling her soup toward her. "So, Harry, what else happened today?"

"Nothing," said Harry. "Watched the Ministry entrance for seven hours. No sign of her. Saw your dad though, Ron. He looks fine."

Ron nodded his appreciation of this news. The had agreed that it was far too dangerous to try and communicate with Mr. Weasley while he walked in and out of the Ministry, because he was always surrounded by other Ministry workers. It was, however, reassuring to catch these glimpses of him, even if he did look very strained and anxious.

"Dad always told us most Ministry people use the Floo Network to get to work," Ron said. "That's why we haven't seen Umbridge, she'd never walk, she'd think she's too important."

"And what about that funny old witch and that little wizard in the navy robes?" Juliunna asked.

"Oh yeah, the bloke from Magical Maintenance," said Ron.

"How do you know he works for Magical Maintenance?" Hermione asked, her soupspoon suspended in midair.

"Dad said everyone from Magical Maintenance wears navy blue robes."

"But you never told us that!"

Hermione dropped her spoon and pulled toward her the sheaf of notes and maps that she and Ron had been examining when Harry had entered the kitchen.

"There's nothing in here about navy blue robes, nothing!" she said, flipping feverishly through the pages.

"Well, does it really matter?"

"Ron, it all matters! If we're going to get into the Ministry and not give ourselves away when they're bound to be on the lookout for intruders, every little detail matters! We've been over and over this, I mean, what's the point of all these reconnaissance trips if you aren't even bothering to tell us "

"Blimey, Hermione, I forget one little thing "

"You do realize, don't you, that there's probably no more dangerous place in the whole world for us to be right now than the Ministry of "

"I think we should do it tomorrow," Harry said.

Hermione stopped dead, her jaw hanging; Ron choked a little over his soup, and Juliunna smirked.

"Tomorrow?" repeated Hermione. "You aren't serious, Harry?"

"I am," said Harry. "I don't think we're going to be much better prepared than we are now even if we skulk around the Ministry entrance for another month. The longer we put it off, the farther away that locket could be. There's already a good chance Umbridge has chucked it away; the thing doesn't open."

"Unless," said Ron, "she's found a way of opening it and she's now possessed."

"Wouldn't make any difference to her, she was so evil in the first place," Harry shrugged.

Hermione was biting her lip, deep in thought.

"We know everything important," Harry went on, addressing Hermione. "We know they've stopped Apparition in and out of the Ministry; We know only the most senior Ministry members are allowed to connect their homes to the Floo Network now, because Ron heard those two Unspeakables complaining about it. And we know roughly where Umbridge's office is, because of what you heard the bearded bloke saying to his mate "

"'I'll be up on level one, Dolores wants to see me,'" Hermione recited immediately.

"Exactly," said Harry. "And we know you get in using those funny coins, or tokens, or whatever they are, because I saw that witch borrowing one from her friend "

"But we haven't got any!"

"If the plan works, we will have," Harry continued calmly.

"I don't know, Harry, I don't know ... There are an awful lot of things that could go wrong, so much relies on chance ..." Hermione said, frowning.

"That'll be true even if we spend another three months preparing," said Harry. "It's time to act."

He could tell from Ron's and Hermione's faces that they were scared; he was not particularly confident himself, and yet he was sure the time had come to put their plan into operation. He looked at Juliunna's face, fearless and riffed with excitement.

They had spent the previous four weeks taking it in turns to don the Invisibility Cloak and spy on the official entrance to the Ministry, which Ron, thanks to Mr. Weasley, had known since childhood. They had tailed Ministry workers on their way in, eavesdropped on their conversations, and learned by careful observation which of them could be relied upon to appear, alone, at the same time every day. Occasionally there had been a chance to sneak a Daily Prophet out of somebody's briefcase. Slowly they had built up the sketchy maps and notes now stacked in front of Hermione.

"All right," said Ron slowly, "let's say we go for it tomorrow ... I think it should just be me and Harry."

"Oh, don't start that again!" sighed Hermione. "I thought we'd settled this."

"It's one thing hanging around the entrances under the Cloak, but this is different. Hermione," Ron jabbed a finger at a copy of the Daily Prophet dated ten days previously. "You're on the list of Muggle-borns who didn't present themselves for interrogation!" He snarled.

"And you're supposed to be dying of spattergroit at the Burrow! If anyone shouldn't go, it's Harry, he's got a ten-thousand-Galleon price on his head "

"Fine, I'll stay here," said Harry. "Let me know if you ever defeat Voldemort, won't you?"

As Ron and Hermione laughed, pain shot through the scar on Harry's forehead. His hand jumped to it. He saw Hermione's eyes narrow, and he tried to pass off the movement by brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Well, if all four of us go we'll have to Disapparate separately," Ron was saying. "We can't all fit under the Cloak anymore."

Harry's scar was becoming more and more painful. He stood up. At once, Kreacher hurried forward.

"Master has not finished his soup, would master prefer the savory stew, or else the treacle tart to which Master is so partial?"

"Thanks, Kreacher, but I'll be back in a minute, er bathroom."

Aware that Hermione was watching him suspiciously, Harry hurried up the stairs to the hall and then to the first landing, where he dashed into the bathroom and bolted the door again. Grunting with pain, he slumped over the black basin with its taps in the form of open-mouthed serpents and closed his eyes ...

_He was gliding along a twilit street. The buildings on either side of him had high, timbered gables; they looked like gingerbread houses. He approached one of them, then saw the whiteness of his own long-fingered hand against the door. He knocked. He felt a mounting excitement ...___

_The door opened: A laughing woman stood there. Her face fell as she looked into Harry's face: humor gone, terror replacing it ...___

_"Gregorovitch?" said a high, cold voice.___

_She shook her head: She was trying to close the door. A white hand held it steady, prevented her shutting him out ...___

_"I want Gregorovitch."___

_"Er wohnt hier nicht mehr!" she cried, shaking her head. "He no live here! He no live here! I know him not!"___

_Abandoning the attempt to close the door, she began to back away down the dark hall, and Harry followed, gliding toward her, and his long-fingered hand had drawn his wand.___

_"Where is he?"___

_"Das weiszlig ich nicht! He move! I know not, I know not!"___

_He raised his hand. She screamed. Two young children came running into the hall. She tried to shield them with her arms. There was a flash of green light.___

"Harry! HARRY!"

He opened his eyes; he had sunk to the floor. Hermione was pounding on the door again.

"Harry, open up!"

He had shouted out, he knew it. He got up and unbolted the door; Hermione toppled inside at once, regained her balance, and looked around suspiciously. Ron, and Juliunna were right behind her, looking unnerved as Ron pointed his wand into the corners of the chilly bathroom.

"What were you doing?" asked Hermione sternly.

"What d'you think I was doing?" asked Harry with feeble bravado.

"You were yelling your head off!" said Ron.

"Oh yeah ... I must've dozed off or-!"

"Harry, please don't insult our intelligence," said Hermione, taking deep breaths. "We know your scar hurt downstairs, and you're white as a sheet."

Harry sat down on the edge of the bath.

"Fine. I've just seen Voldemort murdering a woman. By now he's probably killed her whole family. And he didn't need to. It was Cedric all over again, they were just there ..."

"Harry, you aren't supposed to let this happen anymore!" Hermione cried, her voice echoing through the bathroom. "Dumbledore wanted you to use Ocullamancy! _**HE**_ thought the connection was dangerous. Voldemort can use it, Harry! What good is it to watch him kill and torture, how can it help?"

"Because it means I know what he's doing," said Harry.

"So you're not even going to try to shut him out?"

"Hermione, I can't. You know I'm lousy at Ocullamancy. I never got the hang of it."

"I offered to teach you." Juliunna said with a shrug.

"And I offered to try. But I never got the hang of it from Snape, Hermione, and until march comes, its not going to even happen!" Harry snapped, rounding on Hermione.  
"You never really tried!" she said hotly. "I don't get it, Harry do you like having this special connection or relationship or whatever "

She faltered under the look he gave her as he stood up.

"Like it?" he said quietly. "Would you like it?"

"I… no I'm sorry, Harry. I just didn't mean "

"I hate it, I hate the fact that he can get inside me, that I have to watch him when he's most dangerous. But I'm going to use it."

"Dumbledore-!"

"Forget Dumbledore. This is my choice, nobody else's. I want to know why he's after Gregorovitch."

"Who?"

"He's a foreign wand maker," said Harry. "He made Krum's wand and Krum reckons he's brilliant."

"But according to you," said Ron, "Voldemort's got Ollivanders locked up somewhere. If he's already got a wand maker, what does he need another one for?"

"Maybe he agrees with Krum, maybe he thinks Gregorovitch is better ... or else he thinks Gregorovitch will be able to explain what my wand did when he was chasing me, because Ollivanders didn't know."

Harry glanced into the cracked, dusty mirror and saw Ron and Hermione exchanging skeptical looks behind his back.

"Harry, you keep talking about what your wand did," said Hermione, "but you made it happen! Why are you so determined not to take responsibility for your own power?"

"Because I know it wasn't me! And so does Voldemort and so does she, Hermione!" He snapped, pointing at Juliunna. " We all know what really happened!"

They glared at each other; Harry knew that he had not convinced Hermione and that she was marshaling counterarguments, against both his theory on his wand and the fact that he was permitting himself to see into Voldemort's mind. To his relief, Ron intervened.

"Drop it," he advised her. "It's up to him. And if we're going to the Ministry tomorrow, don't you reckon we should go over the plan?"

Reluctantly, as the other three could tell, Hermione let the matter rest, though Harry was quite sure she would attack again at the first opportunity. In the meantime, they returned to the basement kitchen, where Kreacher served them all stew and treacle tart.

They did not get to bed until late that night, after spending hours going over and over their plan until they could recite it, word perfect, to each other. Harry, who was now sleeping in Sirius's room, lay in bed with his wand light trained on the old photograph of his father, Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew, and muttered the plan to himself for another ten minutes. As he extinguished his wand, however, he was thinking not of Polyjuice Potion, Puking Pastilles, or the navy blue robes of Magical Maintenance; he thought of Gregorovitch the wand maker, and how long he could hope to remain hidden while Voldemort sought him so determinedly.

Dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste.

"You look terrible," was Ron's greeting as he entered the room to wake Harry.

"Not for long," said Harry, yawning.

They found Hermione downstairs in the kitchen. She was being served coffee and hot rolls by Kreacher and wearing the slightly manic expression that Harry associated with exam review.

"Robes," she said under her breath, acknowledging their presence with a nervous nod and continuing to poke around in her beaded bag, "Polyjuice Potion ... Invisibility Cloak ... Decoy Detonators ... You should each take a couple just in case ... Puking Pastilles, Nosebleed Nougats, Extendable Ears ..."

They gulped down their breakfast, then set off upstairs, Kreacher bowing them out and promising to have a steak-and-kidney pie ready for them when they returned.

"Bless him," said Ron fondly, "and when you think I used to fantasize about cutting off his head and sticking it on the wall."

They made their way onto the front step with immense caution. They could see a couple of puffy-eyed Death Eaters watching the house from across the misty square.

Hermione Disapparated with Ron first, then came back for Harry, and then for Juliunna.

After the usual brief spell of darkness and near suffocation, Harry found himself in the tiny alleyway where the first phase of their plan was scheduled to take place. It was as yet deserted, except for a couple of large bins; the first Ministry workers did not usually appear here until at least eight o'clock.

"Right then," said Hermione, checking her watch. "she ought to be here in about five minutes. When I've Stunned her "

"Hermione, we know," said Ron sternly. "And I thought we were supposed to open the door before she got here?"

Hermione squealed.

"I nearly forgot! Stand back "

She pointed her wand at the padlocked and sent a white hot spell at it, an the door burst open with a crash. The dark corridor behind it led, as they knew from their careful scouting trips, into an empty theater. Hermione pulled the door back toward her, to make it look as thought it was still closed.

"And now," she said, turning, back to face the other two in the alleyway, "we put on the Cloak again-!"

" and we wait," Ron finished, throwing it over Hermione and Juliunna's head like a blanket over a birdcage and rolling his eyes at Harry. Juliunna giggled softly underneath the cloak when they heard Hermione whisper something. Apparently she had said something funny.

Little more than a minute later, there was a tiny pop and a little Ministry witch with flyaway gray hair Apperated feet from them, blinking a little in the sudden brightness: the sun had just come out from behind a cloud. She barely had time to enjoy the unexpected warmth, however, before Hermione's silent Stunning Spell hit her in the chest and she toppled over.

"Nicely done, Hermione," said Ron, emerging behind a bin beside the theater door as Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak. Together they carried the little witch into the dark passageway that led backstage. Hermione plucked a few hairs from the witch's head and added them to a flask of muddy Polyjuice Potion she had taken from the beaded bag. Ron was rummaging through the little witch's handbag.

"She's Mafalda Hopkirk," he said, reading a small card that identified their victim as an assistant in the Improper Use of Magic Office. "You'd better take this, Hermione, and here are the tokens."

He passed her several small golden coins, all embossed with the letters M.O.M. which he had taken from the witch's purse.

Hermione drank the Polyjuice Potion, which was now a pleasant heliotrope color, and within seconds stood before them, the double of Mafalda Hopkirk. As she removed Mafalda's spectacles and put them on, Harry checked his watch.

"We're running late, Mr. Magical Maintenance will be here any second."

They hurried to close the door on the real Mafalda; Harry, Juliunna, and Ron threw the Invisibility Cloak over themselves but Hermione remained in view, waiting. Seconds later there was another pop, and a small, ferrety looking wizard appeared before them.

"Oh, hello, Mafalda."

"Hello!" said Hermione in a quivery voice, "How are you today?"

"Not so good, actually," replied the little wizard, who looked thoroughly downcast.

As Hermione and the wizard headed for the main road, Harry, Juliunna, and Ron crept along behind them.

"I'm sorry to hear you're under the weather," said Hermione, talking firmly over the little wizard and he tried to expound upon his problems; it was essential to stop him from reaching the street. "Here, have a sweet."

"Eh? Oh, no thanks "

"I insist!" said Hermione aggressively, shaking the bag of pastilles in his face. Looking rather alarmed, the little wizard took one.

The effect was instantaneous. The moment the pastille touched his tongue, the little wizard started vomiting so hard that he did not even notice as Hermione yanked a handful of hairs from the top of his head.

"Oh dear!" she said, as he splattered the alley with sick. "Perhaps you'd better take the day off!"

"No, no!" He choked and retched, trying to continue on his way despite being unable to walk straight. "I must today must go "

"But that's just silly!" said Hermione, alarmed. "You can't go to work in this state I think you ought to go to St. Mungo's and get them to sort you out."

The wizard had collapsed, heaving, onto all fours, still trying to crawl toward the main street.

"You simply can't go to work like this!" cried Hermione.

At last he seemed to accept the truth of her words. Using a reposed Hermione to claw his way back into a standing position, he turned on the spot and vanished, leaving nothing behind but the bag Ron had snatched from his hand as he went and some flying chunks of vomit.

"Urgh," said Hermione, holding up the skirt of her robe to avoid the puddles of sick. "It would have made much less mess to Stun him too."

"Yeah," said Ron, emerging from under the cloak holding the wizard's bag, "but I still think a whole pile of unconscious bodies would have drawn more attention. Keen on his job, though, isn't he? Chuck us the hair and the potion, then."

Within two minutes, Ron stood before them, as small and ferrety as the sick wizard, and wearing the navy blue robes that had been folded in his bag.

"Weird he wasn't wearing them today, wasn't it, seeing how much he wanted to go? Anyway, I'm Reg Cattermole, according to the label in the back."

"Now wait here," Hermione told Harry, who was still under the Invisibility Cloak, Juliunna leaned forward out of comfort. "and we'll be back with some hairs for you too.

He had to wait ten minutes, but it seemed much longer to Harry, skulking alone in the sick-splattered alleyway beside the door concealing the Stunned Mafalda. Finally Ron and Hermione reappeared.

"We don't know who he is," Hermione said, passing Harry several curly black hairs, "but he's gone home with a dreadful nosebleed! Here, he's pretty tall, you'll need bigger robes ..."

She pulled out a set of the old robes Kreacher had laundered for them, and Harry retired to take the potion and change. "I think this will be fit you well." Hermione said with a small chuckle. She handed out a small potion, which disappeared in mid air as Juliunna took it, throwing the invisibility cloak on. She then took it off immediately.

"Why are you smiling?"

"No reason." Hermione snickered as she walked back to Ron. Juliunna rolled her eyes and cautiously downed the potion in one gulp. Harry did so to his too. He jetted forward with a gasp of bubbly pain.

Once the painful transformation was complete he was more than six feet tall and, from what he could tell from his well-muscled arms, powerfully built. He also had a beard. He pushed the invisibility cloak over Juliunna's head, and when she was invisible again, rather grudgingly, they rejoined the other two.

"Blimey, that's scary," said Ron, looking up at Harry, who now towered over him.

"Take one of Mafalda's tokens," Hermione told Harry, "and let's go, it's nearly nine."

They stepped out of the alleyway together. Fifty yards along the crowded pavement there were spiked black railings flanking two flights of stairs, one labeled **GENTLEMEN**, the other **LADIES.****  
**  
"See you in a moment, then," said Hermione nervously, and she and an invisible Juliunna tottered off down the steps to _LADIE_S. Harry and Ron joined a number of oddly dressed men descending into what appeared to be an ordinary underground public toilet, tiled in grimy black and white.

"Morning, Reg!" called another wizard in navy blue robes as he let himself into a cubicle by inserting his golden token into a slot in the door. "Blooming pain in the bum, this, eh? Forcing us all to get to work this way! Who are they expecting to turn up, Harry Potter?"

The wizard roared with laughter at his own wit. Ron gave a forced chuckle.

"Yeah," he said, "stupid, isn't it?"

And he and Harry let themselves into adjoining cubicles.

To Harry's left and right came the sound of flushing. He crouched down and peered through the gap at the bottom of the cubicle, just in time to see a pair of booted feet climbing into the toilet next door. He looked left and saw Ron blinking at him.

"We have to flush ourselves in?" he whispered.

"Looks like it," Harry whispered back; his voice came out deep and gravelly.

They both stood up. Feeling exceptionally foolish, Harry clambered into the toilet.

He knew at once that he had done the right thing; thought he appeared to be standing in water, his shoes, feet, and robes remained quite dry. He reached up, pulled the chain, and next moment had zoomed down a short chute, emerging out of a fireplace into the Ministry of Magic.

He got up clumsily; there was a lot more of his body than he was accustomed to. The great Atrium seemed darker than Harry remembered it. Previously a golden fountain had filled the center of the hall, casting shimmering spots of light over the polished wooden floor and walls. Now a gigantic statue of black stone dominated the scene. It was rather frightening, this vast sculpture of a witch and a wizard sitting on ornately carved thrones, looking down at the Ministry workers toppling out of fireplaces below them. Engraved in foot-high letters at the base of the statue were the words **MAGIC IS MIGHT**.

Harry received a heavy blow on the back of the legs. Another wizard had just flown out of the fireplace behind him.

"Out of the way, can't you, oh, sorry, Runcorn."

Clearly frightened, the balding wizard hurried away. Apparently the man who Harry was impersonating, Runcorn, was intimidating.

"Psst!" said a voice, and he looked around to see a wispy little witch and the ferrety wizard from Magical Maintenance gesturing to him from over beside the statue. Harry hastened to join them.

"You got in all right, then?" Hermione whispered to Harry.

"No, he's still stuck in the hog," said Ron.

"Oh, very funny ... It's horrible, isn't it?" she said to Harry, who was staring up at the statue. "Have you seen what they're sitting on?"

Harry looked more closely and realized that what he had thought were decoratively carved thrones were actually mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men, women, and children, all with rather stupid, ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards.

"That's so sad." They heard Juliunna whisper.

"Muggles," whispered Hermione, "In their rightful place. Come on, let's get going."

They joined the stream of witches and wizards moving toward the golden gates at the end of the hall, looking around as surreptitiously as possible, but there was no sign of the distinctive figure of Dolores Umbridge. They passed through the gates and into a smaller hall, where queues were forming in front of twenty golden grilles housing as many lifts. They had barely joined the nearest one when a voice said, "Cattermole!"

They looked around: Harry's stomach turned over. One of the Death Eaters who had witnessed Dumbledore's death was striding toward them. The Ministry workers beside them fell silent, their eyes downcast; Harry could feel fear rippling through them.

The man's scowling, slightly brutish face was somehow at odds with his magnificent, sweeping robes, which were embroidered with much gold thread. Someone in the crowd around the lifts called sycophantically, "Morning, Yaxley!" Yaxley ignored them.

"I requested somebody from Magical Maintenance to sort out my office, Cattermole. It's still raining in there."

Ron looked around as though hoping somebody else would intervene, but nobody spoke.

"Raining ... in your office? That's That's not good, is it?"

Ron gave a nervous laugh. Yaxley's eyes widened.

"You think it's funny, Cattermole, do you?"

A pair of witches broke away from the queue for the lift and bustled off.

"No," said Ron, "no, of course "

"You realize that I am on my way downstairs to interrogate your wife, Cattermole? In fact, I'm quite surprised you're not down there holding her hand while she waits. Already given her up as a bad job, have you? Probably wise. Be sure and marry a pureblood next time."

Hermione had let out a little squeak of horror. Yaxley looked at her. She cough feebly and turned away.

"I-" stammered Ron.

"But if my wife were accused of being a Mudblood," said Yaxley, " not that any woman I married would ever be mistaken for such filth, and the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement needed a job doing, I would make it my priority to do this job, Cattermole. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," whispered Ron.

"Then attend to it, Cattermole, and if my office is not completely dry within an hour, your wife's Blood Status will be in even greater doubt than it is now."

The golden grille before them clattered open. With a nod and unpleasant smile to Harry, who was evidently expected to appreciate this treatment of Cattermole, Yaxley swept away toward another lift. Harry, Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione entered theirs, but nobody followed them: It was as if they were infectious. The grilles shut with a clang and the lift began to move upward.

"What am I going to do?" Ron asked the other three at once; he looked stricken. "If I don't turn up, my wife ... I mean, Cattermole's wife "

"We'll come with you, we should stick together." began Harry, but Ron shook his head feverishly.

"That's mental, we haven't got much time. You two find Umbridge, I'll go and sort out Yaxley's office but how do I stop a raining?"

"Try Finite Incantatem," said Hermione at once, "that should stop the rain if it's a hex or curse; if it doesn't something's gone wrong with an Atmospheric Charm, which will be more difficult to fix, so as an interim measure try Impervius to protect his belongings "

"Say it again, slowly " said Ron, searching his pockets desperately for a quill, but at that moment. Juliunna threw off the cloak, and Harry let out a barking laugh. Juliunna was standing no taller then Harry's waist.

"A de aging potion?" She whispered harshly. Her eyes were wide and chocolate brown, and her robes were now too big for her. But she was a toddler, and she looked cute. Her hair was long and curly, and the glare she was giving Hermione made them laugh.

The lift juddered to a halt

A disembodied female voice said, "Level four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being, and Spirit Divisions, Goblin Liaison Office, and Pest Advisory Bureau," and the grilles slid open again, admitting a couple of wizards and several pale violet paper airplanes that fluttered around the lamp in the ceiling of the lift.

"Morning, Albert," said a mushily whiskered man, smiling at Harry. He glanced over at Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione as the lift creaked upward once more; Hermione was now whispering frantic instructions to Ron. The wizard leaned toward Harry, leering, and muttering "Dirk Creswell, eh? From Goblin Liaison? Nice one, Albert. I'm pretty confident I'll get his job now!"

He winked. Harry smiled back, hoping that this would suffice. The lift stopped; the grilles opened once more.

"Level two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services," said the disembodied witch's voice. Juliunna leaned close to Harry and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Eh, who's this?" The wizard said. "This is my Uncle." She said quickly. "He's watching me." She said. She then looked forward and went rigid.

"Well she's cute." The Wizard said. Harry nodded once.

Harry saw Hermione give Ron a little push and he hurried out of the lift, followed by the other wizards, leaving Harry, Juliunna, and Hermione alone. The moment the golden door had closed Hermione said, very fast, "Actually, Harry, I think I'd better go after him, I don't think he knows what he's doing and if he gets caught the whole thing-!"

"Level one, Minister of Magic and Support Staff."

The golden grilles slid apart again and Hermione gasped. Four people stood before them, two of them deep in conversation: a long-haired wizard wearing magnificent robes of black and gold, and a squat, toad like witch wearing a velvet bow in her short hair and clutching a clipboard to her chest.

Ah, Mafalda!" said Umbridge, looking at Hermione. "Travers sent you, did he?"

"Y-yes," squeaked Hermione.

"Good, you'll do perfectly well." Umbridge spoke to the wizard in black and gold. "That's that problem solved. Minister, if Mafalda can be spared for record-keeping we shall be able to start straightaway." She consulted her clipboard. "Ten people today and one of them the wife of a Ministry employee! Tut, tut... even here, in the heart of the Ministry!" She stepped into the lift besides Hermione, as did the two wizards who had been listening to Umbridge's conversation with the Minister. "We'll go straight down, Mafalda, you'll find everything you need in the courtroom. Good morning, Albert, aren't you getting out?"

"Yes, of course," said Harry in Runcorn's deep voice. "Is this your niece Albert? Babysitting?"

"Yep." Harry said. "Showing her around. Told her I'd show her my line of work. See you all later." He said gruffly

Harry and Juliunna stepped out of the lift. The golden grilles clanged shut behind them. Glancing over his shoulder, Harry saw Hermione's anxious face sinking back out of sight, a tall wizard on either side of her, Umbridge's velvet hair-bow level with her shoulder as she waved at Juliunna with fat, stubby fingers.

"What brings you here, Runcorn?" asked the new Minister of Magic. His long black hair and beard were streaked with silver and a great overhanging forehead shadowed his glinting eyes, putting Harry in the mind of a crab looking out from beneath a rock. Juliunna leaned close to Harry.

"Needed a quick word with," Harry hesitated for a fraction of a second, "Arthur Weasley. Someone said he was up on level one."

"Ah," said Plum Thicknesse. "Has he been caught having contact with an Undesirable?"

"No," said Harry, his throat dry. "No, nothing like that."

"Ah, well. It's only a matter of time," said Thicknesse. "If you ask me, the blood traitors are as bad as the Mudbloods. Good day, Runcorn."

"Good day, Minister."

Harry watched Thicknesse march away along the thickly carpeted corridor. The moment the Minister had passed out of sight, Harry turned to Juliunna. "I want you to go sit with Mr. Weasley. I don't have enough room with my cloak. Go stall him, if he's alone and you think its safe, you can tell him we're okay. I'll come and get you on my way back." He whispered. Juliunna nodded once.

"It's the third door on the left, all the way down at the end of the hallway." He whispered. The second she disappeared into the room, Harry tugged the Invisibility Cloak out from under his heavy black cloak, threw it over himself, and set off along the corridor in the opposite direction. Runcorn was so tall that Harry was forced to stoop to make sure his big feet were hidden.

…  
Harry snapped his fingers abruptly. He was standing in the doorway to Arthur's office, no one was in there except for Juliunna, sitting on an empty desk.

"Turns out that Arthur's office was moved when he got the promotion!" Juliunna snapped. Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hall.

Their priority now had to be to leave the Ministry before they were exposed, and try again another day. The first thing to do was to find Ron, and then they could work out a way of extracting Hermione from the courtroom.

The lift was empty when it arrived. Harry jumped in and pulled off the Invisibility Cloak as it started its descent. To his enormous relief, when it rattled to a halt at level two, a soaking-wet and wild-eyed Ron got in.

"M-morning," he stammered to Harry as the lift set off again.

"Ron, it's me, Harry!"

"Harry! Blimey, I forgot what you looked like why isn't Hermione with you?"

"She had to go down to the courtrooms with Umbridge, she couldn't refuse, and-!"

But before Juliunna could finish the lift had stopped again. The doors opened and Mr. Weasley walked inside, talking to an elderly witch whose blonde hair was teased so high it resembled an anthill.

"... I quite understand what you're saying, Wakanda, but I'm afraid I cannot be party to-"

Mr. Weasley broke off; he had noticed Harry. It was very strange to have Mr. Weasley glare at him with that much dislike. The lift doors closed and the five of them trundled downward once more.

"Oh hello, Reg," said Mr. Weasley, looking around at the sound of steady dripping from Ron's robes. "Isn't your wife in for questioning today? Er, what's happened to you? Why are you so wet?"

"Yaxley's office is raining," said Ron. He addressed Mr. Weasley's shoulder, and Harry felt sure he was scared that his father might recognize him if they looked directly into each other's eyes. "I couldn't stop it, so they've sent me to get Bernie Pillsworth, I think they said,"

"Yes, a lot of offices have been raining lately," said Mr. Weasley. "Did you try Meterolojinx Recanto? It worked for Bletchley."

"Meteolojinx Recanto?" whispered Ron. "No, I didn't. Thanks, D-! I mean, thanks, Arthur."

The lift doors opened; the old witch with the anthill hair left, and Ron darted past her out of sight. Harry made to follow him, but found his path blocked as Percy Weasley strode into the lift, his nose buried in some papers he was reading.

Not until the doors had clanged shut again did Percy realize he was in a lift with his father. He glanced up, saw Mr. Weasley, turned radish red, and left the lift the moment the doors opened again. For the second time, Harry tried to get out, but this time found his way blocked by Mr. Weasley's arm.

"One moment, Runcorn."

The lift doors closed and as they clanked down another floor, Mr. Weasley said, "I hear you had information about Dirk Creswell."

Harry had the impression that Mr. Weasley's anger was no less because of the brush with Percy. He decided his best chance was to act stupid.

"Sorry?" he said.

"Don't pretend, Runcorn," said Mr. Weasley fiercely. "You tracked down the wizard who faked his family tree, didn't you?"

"So what if I did?" said Harry.

"So Dirk Creswell is ten times the wizard you are," said Mr. Weasley quietly, as the lift sank ever lower. "And if he survives Azkaban, you'll have to answer to him, not to mention his wife, his sons, and his friends "

"Arthur," Harry interrupted, "you know you're being tracked, don't you?"

"Is that a threat, Runcorn?" said Mr. Weasley loudly.

"No," said Harry, "it's a fact! They're watching your every move "

The lift doors opened. They had reached the Atrium. Mr. Weasley gave Harry a scathing look and swept from the lift. Harry stood there, shaken. He wished he was impersonating somebody other than Runcorn... The lift doors clanged shut.

"Wow" Juliunna smirked.

Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak and put it back on. "Stay here." He whispered.

"Why?" Juliunna said.

"You don't need to be down there. Its better if I go alone. I want you to stay here, and I'll come back with Hermione. No matter what, don't get out." He whispered. He would try to extricate Hermione on his own while Ron was dealing with the raining office. When the doors opened, he stepped out into a torch-lit stone passageway quite different from the wood-paneled and carpeted corridors above. As the left rattled away again, Harry shivered slightly, looking toward the distant black door that marked the entrance to the Department of Mysteries.

They managed to get up the stone stops without being intercepted, but as they approached the lifts Harry started to have misgivings. If they emerged into the Atrium with a silver stag, and otter soaring alongside it, and twenty or so people, half of them accused Muggle-borns, he could not help feeling that they would attract unwanted attention. He had just reached this unwelcome conclusion when the lift clanged to a halt in front of them. Hermione and Ron were standing together, looking sullen.

"Reg!" screamed Mrs. Cattermole, and she threw herself into Ron's arms. "Runcorn let me out, he attacked Umbridge and Yaxley, and he's told all of us to leave the country. I think we'd better do it, Reg, I really do, let's hurry home and fetch the children, and why are you so wet?"

"Water," muttered Ron, disengaging himself. "Harry, they know there are intruders inside the Ministry, something about a hole in Umbridge's office door. I reckon we've got five minutes if that-!"

Hermione's Patronus vanished with a pop as she turned a horror struck face to Harry.

"Harry, if we're trapped here-!"

"We won't be if we move fast," said Harry. He addressed the silent group behind them, who were all gawping at him.

"Who's got wands?"

About half of them raised their hands. Juliunna ran forward and he lifted her into his arms over the large crowd of people.

"Okay, all of you who haven't got wands need to attach yourself to somebody who has. We'll need to be fast before they stop us. Come on."

They managed to cram themselves into two lifts. Harry's Patronus stood sentinel before the golden grilles as they shut and the lifts began to rise.

"Level eight," said the witch's cool voice, "Atrium."

Harry knew at once that they were in trouble. The Atrium was full of people moving from fireplace to fireplace, sealing them off.

"Harry!" squeaked Hermione. "What are we going to-!"

"STOP!" Harry thundered, and the powerful voice of Runcorn echoed through the Atrium: The wizards sealing the fireplaces froze. "Follow me," he whispered to the group of terrified Muggle-borns, who moved forward in a huddle, shepherded by Ron and Hermione. Juliunna leaned down, terrified.

"What's up, Albert?" said the same balding wizard who had followed Harry out of the fireplace earlier. He looked nervous.

"This lot need to leave before you seal the exits," said Harry with all the authority he could muster.

The group of wizards in front of him looked at one another.

"We've been told to seal all exits and not let anyone "

"Are you contradicting me?" Harry blustered. "Would you like me to have your family tree examined, like I had Dirk Creswell's?"

"Sorry!" gasped the balding wizard, backing away. "I didn't mean nothing, Albert, but I thought... I thought they were in for questioning and..."

"Their blood is pure," said Harry, and his deep voice echoed impressively through the hall. "Purer than many of yours, I daresay. Off you go," he boomed to the Muggle-borns, who scurried forward into the fireplaces and began to vanish in pairs. The Ministry wizards hung back, some looking confused, others scared and fearful. Then:

"Mary!"

Mrs. Cattermole looked over her shoulder. The real Reg Cattermole, no longer vomiting but pale and healthy, had just come running out of a lift.

"R- Reg?"

She looked from her husband to Ron, who swore loudly.

The balding wizard gaped, his head turning ludicrously from one Reg Cattermole to the other.

"Hey what's going on? What is this?"

"Seal the exit! SEAL IT!"

Yaxley had burst out of another lift and was running toward the group beside the fireplaces, into which all of the Muggle-borns but Mrs. Cattermole had now vanished. As the balding wizard lifted his wand, Harry raised an enormous fist and punched him, sending him flying through the air.

"He's been helping Muggle-borns escape, Yaxley!" Harry shouted.

The balding wizard's colleagues set up an uproar, under cover of which Ron grabbed Mrs. Cattermole, pulled her into the still-open fireplace, and disappeared. Confused, Yaxley looked from Harry to the punched wizard, while the real Reg Cattermole screamed, "My wife! Who was that with my wife? What's going on?"

Harry saw Yaxley's head turn, saw an inkling of truth dawn on that brutish face.

"Come on!" Harry shouted at Hermione; he seized her hand and clutched Juliunna tighter, and they jumped into the fireplace together as Yaxley's curse sailed over Harry's head. They spun for a few seconds before shooting up out of a toilet into a cubicle. Harry flung open the door: Ron was standing there beside the sinks, still wrestling with Mrs. Cattermole.

"Reg, I don't understand "

"Let go, I'm not your husband, you've got to go home!"

There was a noise in the cubicle behind them; Harry looked around; Yaxley had just appeared. He was baring his wand, glaring widely.

**"LET'S GO!"** Harry yelled. He seized Hermione by the hand and Ron by his side, Juliunna wrapping her arms and legs around him, and turned on the stop.

Darkness engulfed them, along with the sensation of compressing hands, but something was wrong... Hermione's hand seemed to be sliding out of his grip...

He wondered whether he was going to suffocate; he could not breathe or see and the only solid things in the world were Ron's arm, Juliunna's limbs, and Hermione's fingers, which were slowly slipping away as everything faded into a darker shade of black.

And then he saw the door to number twelve, Grimmauld Place, with its serpent door knocker, but before he could draw breath, there was a scream and a flash of purple light: Hermione's hand was suddenly viselike upon his and everything went dark again.  
Harry opened his eyes and was dazzled by gold and green; he had no idea what had happened, he only knew that he was lying on what seemed to be leaves and twigs. Struggling to draw breath into lungs that felt flattened, he blinked and realized that the gaudy glare was sunlight streaming through a canopy of leaves far above him. Juliunna Riddle was laying on his chest, dazed. Then an object twitched close to his face.

Harry laid Juliunna carefully on the floor, and softly pushed himself onto his hands and knees, ready to face some small, fierce creature, but saw that the object was Ron's foot. Looking around, Harry saw that they and Hermione and Juliunna were lying on a forest floor, apparently alone. 


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 30:

**Normal Pov**

Hermione whipped around to look at Harry. Neither of them dared say more in front of Phineas Nigellus, who had at least managed to locate the exit. Juliunna's lips twitched softly.

"Well, good night to you," he said a little waspishly, and he began to move out of sight again. Only the edge of his hat brim remained in view when Harry gave a sudden shout.

"Wait! Have you told Snape you saw this?"

Phineas Nigellus stuck his blindfolded head back into the picture.

"Professor Snape has more important things on his mind that the many eccentricities of Albus Dumbledore. Good-bye, Potter!"

And with that, he vanished completely, leaving behind him nothing but his murky backdrop.

"Harry!" Hermione cried.

"I know!" Harry shouted. Unable to contain himself, he punched the air; it was more than he had dared to hope for. He strode up and down the tent, feeling that he could have run a mile; he did not even feel hungry anymore. Hermione was squashing Phineas Nigellus's back into the beaded bag; when she had fastened the clasp she threw the bag aside and raised a shining face to Harry.

"The sword can destroy Horcruxes! Goblin-made blades imbibe only that which strengthens them Harry, that sword's impregnated with basilisk venom!"

"And Dumbledore didn't give it to me because he still needed it, he wanted to use it on the locket."

" and he must have realized they wouldn't let you have it if he put it in his will-!" Juliunna said, standing up.

" so he made a copy " Harry said.

" and put a fake in the glass case " Hermione speedily said.

" and he left the real one where?" Juliunna said curiously.

They gazed at east other Harry felt that the answer was dangling invisibly in the air above them, tantalizingly close. Why hadn't Dumbledore told him? Or had he, in fact, told Harry, but Harry had not realized it at the time?

"Think!" whispered Hermione. "Think! Where would he have left it?"

"Not at Hogwarts," said Harry, resuming his pacing.

"Somewhere in Hogsmeade?" suggested Hermione.

"The Shrieking Shack?" said Harry. "Nobody ever goes in there."

"But Snape knows how to get in, wouldn't that be a bit risky?"

"Dumbledore trusted Snape," Harry reminded her.

"Not enough to tell him that he had swapped the swords," Juliunna smirked.

"Yeah, you're right!" said Harry, and he felt even more cheered at the thought that Dumbledore had had some reservations, however faint, about Snape's trustworthiness. "So, would he have hidden the sword well away from Hogsmeade, then? What d'you reckon, Ron? Ron?"

Harry looked around. For one bewildered moment he thought that Ron had left the tent, then realized that Ron was lying in the shadow of a bunk, looking stony.

"Oh, remembered me, have you?" he said.

"What?"

Ron snorted as he stared up at the underside of the upper bunk.

"You three carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun."

Perplexed, Harry looked to Hermione for help, but she shook her head, apparently as nonplussed as he was. He looked to Juliunna, who was narrowing her eyes at Ron.

"What's the problem?" asked Harry.

"Problem? There's no problem," Ron said sourly, still refusing to look at Harry. "Not according to you, anyways."

There were several plunks on the canvas over their heads. It had started to rain.

"Well, you've obviously got a problem," said Harry. "Spit it out, will you?"

Ron swung his long legs off the bed and sat up. He looked mean, unlike himself.

"All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know."

"I don't know?" repeated Harry. "I don't know?"

Plunk, plunk, plunk. The rain was falling harder and heavier; it pattered on the leaf-strewn bank all around them and into the river chattering through the dark. Dread doused Harry's jubilation; Ron was saying exactly what he had suspected and feared him to be thinking.

"It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here," said Ron, "you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running round a few weeks, we'd have achieved something."

"Ron," Hermione said, but in such a quiet voice that Ron could pretend not to have heard it over the loud tattoo the rain was beating on the tent.

"I thought you knew what you'd signed up for." Juliunna said, narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah, I thought I did too." He said with a frown.

"So what part of it isn't living up to your expectations?" asked Harry. Anger was coming to his defense now. "Did you think we'd be staying in five-star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to Mummy by Christmas?"

"We thought you knew what you were doing!" shouted Ron, standing up, and his words Harry like scalding knives. "We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!"

"Ron!" said Hermione, this time clearly audible over the rain thundering on the tent roof, but again, he ignored her.

"Well, sorry to let you down," said Harry, his voice quite calm even though he felt hollow, inadequate. "I've been straight with you from the start. I told you everything Dumbledore told me. And in the case you haven't noticed, we've found one Horcrux "

"Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them. Nowhere effing near in other words."

"Take off the locket, Ron," Juliunna said, her voice unusually high. "Please take it off. You wouldn't be talking like this if you hadn't been wearing it all day."

"Yeah, he would," said Harry, who did not want excuses made for Ron. He turned to Hermione, who went pink. "D'you think I haven't noticed the two of you whispering behind my back? D'you think I didn't guess you were thinking this stuff?"

"Harry, we weren't "

"Don't lie!" Ron hurled at her. "You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you'd thought he had a bit more to go on than."

"I didn't say it like that Harry, I didn't!" Hermione cried.

The rain was pounding the tent, tears were pouring down Hermione's face, and the excitement of a few minutes before had vanished as if it had never been, a short-lived firework that had flared and died, leaving everything dark, wet, and cold. The sword of Gryffindor was hidden they knew not where, and their were four teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not, yet, to be dead.

"So why are you still here?" Harry asked Ron.

"Screw you," said Ron.

"Go home then," said Harry.

"Yeah, maybe I will!" shouted Ron, and he took several steps toward Harry, who did not back away. "Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, _it's only the Forbidden Forest_, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care what happened to her in there. Well, I do, all right, giant spiders and mental stuff "

"I was only saying she was with the others, they were with Hagrid."

"Yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, 'the Weasleys don't need another kid injured,' did you hear that?"

"Yeah, I-!"

"Not bothered what it meant, though?"

"Ron!" said Hermione, forcing her way between them. "I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scared, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant." Hermione said, and Juliunna nodded.

"Oh, you're sure, are you? Right then, well, I won't bother myself about them. It's all right for you, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way "

"My parents are dead!" Harry bellowed.

"And mine could be going the same way!" yelled Ron.

"Then **GO**!" roared Harry. "Go back to them, pretend you're got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and "

Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner's pocket, Hermione had raised her own.

"Protego!" she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her and Harry on the one side and Ron and Juliunna on the other; all of them were forced backward a few steps by the strength of the spell, and Harry and Ron glared from either side of the transparent barrier as though they were seeing each other clearly for the first time. Harry felt a corrosive hatred toward Ron: Something had broken between them.

"Leave the Horcrux," Harry snapped.

Ron wrenched the chain from over his head and cast the locket into a nearby chair. He turned to Hermione.

"What are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you staying, or what?"

"I..." She looked anguished. "Yes, yes, I'm staying. Ron, we said we'd go with Harry, we said we'd help."

"You?" Ron said, rounding on Juliunna, and she bit her lip. She nodded.

"Hurry up." He nodded to her.

"Why?" Harry snapped at her. She strode around the spell and gave Harry and Hermione and quick hug. "I'll calm him down." She whispered. Hermione nodded as Juliunna walked back to Ron's side. Ron stared back at Harry. "I hate you-!"

"I hate you too." Harry snarled.

Juliunna took one last look at them, and then Ron's hand was on her wrist, dragging her out of tent.  
"I get it. You choose him." He said to Hermione, whose eyes were widening.

"What? No-!"  
"Wait Ron, no please come back, come back!" Hermione said, running forward, forgetting about the shield.

She was impeded by her own Shield Charm; by the time she had removed it he had already stormed into the night, pulling Juliunna along. Harry stood quite still and silent, listening to Hermione sobbing and calling Ron's name amongst the trees.

After a few minutes she returned, her sopping hair plastered to her face.

"Their g-g-gone! Disapparated!"

She threw herself into a chair, curled up, and started to cry.

Harry felt dazed. He stooped, picked up the Horcrux, and placed it around his own neck. He dragged blankets off Ron's bunk and threw them over Hermione. Then he climbed onto his own bed and stared up at the dark canvas roof, listening to the pounding of the rain.

…

Juliunna and Ron landed in an alley. They both sighed. "Maybe… Maybe I overreacted." He said, letting go of her wrist. She nodded. "Yes, and you should go back."

He turned to her. "What?"

"Ron I've been in a tent with nothing to eat but berries and mushrooms. I didn't want to say it to their face, but I think I'm done." She sighed. Ron bit his lip.

"Are you sure?"

"No I'm not sure. But I think we should think about it, decide what we're going to do." She said, and Ron nodded.

"Yeah. Let's go get something to eat first." He murmured. They turned around, and froze. Five men were standing at the entrance of the alley, blocking their way out. They were all wearing dark cloaks and smirking. They were all very young looking, about twenty. They strode forward, looking excited.

"Hello." Ron started, and then they were surrounding. Ron made a slight move towards his pocket, but one of them grabbed him, another checked his pocket and took his wand.

"Oh no." Juliunna murmured as another grabbed her, and checked her pockets.

"They look school age." One said excitedly. "What's your name?" He said to Ron. Juliunna's lips twitched softly. His voice was slightly slow, and he sounded dim witted. She looked around and saw that they were all stupid looking. Young and easy to trick.

"Stan Shunpike." Ron muttered quickly.

"And you?" Another asked, leaning forward. His hand reached up and stroked her cheek. Ron frowned.

She tried to think as fast as she could. "Pansy. Pansy Parkinson." She said fluently, frowning. But she wasn't fast enough. The one with the hand on her cheek leaned in, smelling strongly of peppermint candy.

"Are you sure? It took you long enough to answer."

"Well, to be honest, I was wondering what you meant when you asked for my name. Was it the first name, my middle name, or my last name you wanted? I wondered if you wanted the full potential, and it seemed that you did, but then I was thinking about the artificial potential of other information. You all seem young, would you have wanted a short version of our nickname, and in what language would you prefer? English? And then I started thinking about the-!"

"Okay, never mind." He said. He took his hand off and turned to Ron. "Sorry Stan, we didn't know it was you. You're a pureblood, and I know that there was a Pansy Parkinson on the list of prestigious purebloods."

"What?" The one holding Juliunna said. "How do we know he's Stan?"

"Because I said he is!" The other said. The one holding Ron's wand growled. "Wasn't Stan in Azkaban?"

"I was broken out." Ron said excitedly, fighting back a smile.

"See. Broken out!"

"Of Azkaban? By You Know Who?" One said.

"We're snatchers. Can't we just hurry up and snatch?!"

"That doesn't even make sense!" Another one shouted.

At that moment, just as two of them got into the fight, Juliunna just realized that Ron was moving. He lifted his elbow and hit the one holding him in the stomach hard, and grabbed his wand. Juliunna watched as the man leaned forward and she rounded around. Her fist connected with the man's nose hard, and he stumbled over his feet. As he hit the floor, Ron collided with her, wrapping an arm around her waist. He turned the wand on the guys, still fighting. "Expelliarmus!" He snapped. His wand flew out of a snatcher's hand, and Juliunna caught it in mid air. He turned around and disappeared into mid air, bringing Juliunna with him.

They material six feet in the air, and screamed shortly as they fell. They landed in a river stream, and hit the water hard. It was at least knee deep, and Juliunna turned over in disgust, standing up.

"Ron. Get up." She snapped. He stood up, and shook his wet hair. He had fallen on his back. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah…. Nope." He said quickly, lifted up his hands. "I splinched myself again." She looked closely at his hands. There were two missing fingernails on his hand. She immediately checked herself. "I'm good. Dammit Ron." She snapped. "Where are we?"

"Near the campsite. We must be miles away from it." He frowned.

"Let's go." She frowned. They slugged out of the river. Overhead of them, a loud crack of thunder made them both jumped, and the rain started up heavily.  
"Oh this is great!" Juliunna laughed angrily. She speed walked and held her arms together tightly, trying to warm up. Ron hurried up to her.

"What do you think that was about?" He asked. Rain pelted hard on there faces, and they started to walk at a slow trudge, for the heavy rain was accompanied by bristling, howling wind, that fought very hard to keep them away.

"I don't know." She shouted over the loud wind. She yelped and jumped back as a ball of lightning flew downwards, stayed for a few seconds, and then disappeared. Ron frowned.

"Maybe this isn't a good idea. We should try and find shelter, and then get back to the site when the rain stops!" He shouted at her.

"Ron! If they leave the next morning as planned, which we both know they will, then we won't be able to find them! We're just going to have to rough it out!" She yelled at him.

But a half hour later, there was no chance of reaching the camp site in this weather. It turns out that the stream they were in, lead to even bigger lake that was seen right beside them. And it had overflowed. Lightning struck the trees creating small fires that were immediately put out by the heavy rain. And they knew that they had gone very little in the half hour. They were soaked and freezing, and not to mention hungry and tired. And to their horror, Ron thought he heard howling in the near distance, so they found a large tree.

Ron used his wand to cut a sloppy cut away crawlspace that was put at a position above their knees, so it would stay dry inside if the river reached the tree. They crawled inside and grudgingly thought about how it would be to go back home to the Burrow, but couldn't risk Apparating now. They had no idea if it was safe to go back, if there weren't any death eaters at the home, interrogating the family. Juliunna knew for a fact that the Weasley's were being watched.

Glad to be out of the freezing rain, they wrapped their arms around there knees and shivered against their wet clothing.

"I'm freezing." Ron grumbled.

"I know." She said, gritting her teeth.

"I'm hungry."  
"What else is new?!" She snapped at him. He frowned and lifted his head from his knees. "Should we huddle together for warmth."

"Eww." She said, wincing awkwardly, but nodded with a grimace. She crawled forward and leaned against him. "Do me a favor and don't tell Hermione." She said. He nodded, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

"You have no problem kissing me, but you drawl the line at a hug that will save our lives?" He chuckled with force, for his lips had just turned blue and it was getting hard to talk.

"Yep." She said.

She knew that this technique wasn't going to work for a while. Unless they took off their wet clothes, but she wasn't going to tell him that.

…

The next morning, Juliunna awoke with a start. "Get up Ron." She said quickly. He detached himself from her, and yawned.

"What?"

"I think it's the afternoon." She said quickly. They both jumped up and scrambled out of the hole, falling on the floor with a quick snap.

"Quick Ron. Try Apparating to the outskirts of the Protective Boundaries of the site." She said nervously. The sun was up completely, heating them up softly. The rain was nowhere to be seen. She knew from the book, that it was raining heavily when Hermione and Harry left, so they missed them. Ron nodded and gripped her hand tight.

The turned and materialized on the outskirts. They both ran forward, Ron expecting to cross the barrier and see the tent. He frowned. "Their gone." He said.

"Yep." She frowned, popping her lips. What were they going to do now?

"I don't think we should go to the burrow." He said, turning back to her. "Why?" She asked. He strode forward and grabbed her wrist. "Let's go to Bill and Fleur's cottage. I think its better if we stay there instead of home." He said, and Juliunna nodded.

"Let's go. Doesn't matter anyway." She said with a shrug. With a turn, they disappeared into thin air, leaving an echoing popping sound.


End file.
